XIAMEN, China, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Europe should recognise China's increasing competitive edge in low-end manufacturing and stop hitting Chinese firms with anti-dumping duties, a senior Commerce Ministry official said on Tuesday.

The European Union has taken 12 anti-dumping actions against China in the past 12 months, in industries from preserved mandarins to energy-saving light bulbs, after concluding that firms were selling goods for less than the cost of making them.

Cheng Yongru, director of the ministry's Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports, said the EU should accept China's prowess as a function of the international division of labour.

"EU companies should adjust their mindsets to adapt to the globalisation trend. At the current stage of globalisation, China's advantages are in processing, low-end manufacturing and labour-intensive sectors," he said.

"The EU should realise this and work to improve their competitiveness in high-tech, the high end and in service sectors, where they enjoy more advantages," Cheng said on the sidelines of an investment conference in southern Xiamen.

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson, due to visit China Sept. 24-27, has long urged China to open up its markets to foreign goods and investments to counter calls in Europe for a tougher line against China and its soaring trade surplus.

Cheng was speaking a day after sources familiar with the matter said the 27-member EU was likely to keep in place anti-dumping duties on shoes imported from China and Vietnam while Brussels considers calls to renew them formally.

 The levies, which had been due to lapse in October, were set to extend into 2009, the sources said [ID:nL870687].

Leading shoe manufacturers on Tuesday also expressed their growing concern about "the abuse of anti-dumping measures" in the EU and urged the bloc not to keep the shoe duties in place.

"The EU is shooting itself in the foot if it pretends that disrupting international supply chains benefits consumers, innovation and competitiveness," said Alberto Bichi, head of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry which includes companies such as Adidas.

Cheng said the EU was also backsliding on according individual Chinese companies market economy treatment, a designation that helps shield them from anti-dumping actions.

The EU has not granted China market economy status on a national level, arguing the state still plays too big a role in the economy.

LET-OFF FOR STEEL AND FASTENERS?

Cheng took aim at some big European firms, including steel maker ArcelorMittal, for abusing anti-dumping procedures "in pursuit of their own selfish interests".

Brussels is investigating Chinese steel exports after complaints by European producers.

The EU is unlikely to impose provisional duties on imports of hot-dip galvanised steel, a category under investigation, trade publication Steel Business Briefing reported in late July.

 In a separate investigation into steel fasteners from China, Brussels found evidence of dumping but did not impose duties while the probe continues, European producers said in August.

China was the biggest target of new anti-dumping probes in the second half of 2007, the World Trade Organisation says, with 40 by the EU and others involving its exports.

"China is very concerned about it as the EU is China's biggest export destination and Beijing hopes to see stable export growth to the bloc," Cheng said.

Protectionism is just one of many headaches facing Chinese exporters. Soaring labour and environmental compliance costs, rising raw material prices, a steadily strengthening currency, tight bank credit and government policies aimed at curbing low-end exports are all depressing manufacturers' margins.

Beijing gave a hand to the textile sector by increasing value added tax rebates to exporters from Aug. 1.

Cheng said the move underlined the government's concern for labour-intensive industries, but he declined to say whether similar help was in the offing for other struggling sectors.

(Reporting by Eadie Chen; Additional reporting by William Schomberg in Brussels; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Paul Tait)