At a 2 December meeting of the Commercial Questions Group (a Council Committee) EU Member States voted in favour of the European Commission’s proposal to extend the anti-dumping duties on leather footwear from Vietnam and China for another 15 months. It is likely that this decision will be ratified by Council before Christmas.

This decision is a huge disappointment to the European Footwear Alliance (which includes the European Outdoor Group, FESI and EBFC) which has invested considerable time, energy and resources to the campaign, as well as to many EU Member States and to retailers and consumer groups throughout the continent.

Although the Member States voted at the level of the European Commission’s Anti-dumping Advisory Committee to reject the proposal, unfortunately a number of Member States changed their position on the issue and are now voting in favour of the Commission’s proposal. It is unclear from these Member States as to the reasons for the u-turn.

The Commission has been trying to reassure Member States that it will look for no further extension of the duties once this 15 month period expires, however this promise is clearly dubious given that an Expiry Review is initiated at the behest of complaining parties and therefore it is almost inevitable that one will be entered into once the 15 months is set to end.

The duties will be renewed – at the same levels as before – in the New Year and will continue until early April 2011, whereupon another Expiry Review might reasonably be expected to begin.

This story will be covered in more detail in the next issue of OutdoorNews available at ispo.