The failure of shoe manufactures in the mainland and Macau to clarify their import and export activities led to the EU imposing anti-dumping measures on the city, the union's journal states.

In April the EU imposed a 16.5 percent tariff on shoe exports from Macau into its member countries to match the level already charged on exports from the mainland. As a result of the investigation the union suspected that shoes made in the mainland – accused of dumping low-priced products in the EU – were being re-routed through Macau to avoid the duty.

A combination of low co-operation levels from local and mainland manufacturers and the growing number of shoe exports from the city led to the decision, stated the Official Journal of the European Union.

“As regards the allegations of transhipment via the Macao SAR (without assembly), no companies cooperated with the investigation leaving the Commission to rely, inter alia, on statistical information,” the journal said.

“The investigation showed that there was clear circumvention of the measures on the product concerned from the PRC.”

The investigation carried out between June 2006 and July last year saw in total eight of the fifteen manufactures and exporters of shoes from Macau reply to the EU's questionnaire. However the largest company contributing some 50 percent of the trade didn't respond, leaving the EU to classify the response as inadequate.

Only 27 of the “many hundreds” of mainland exporting producers replied to a “mini-questionnaire”.

The substantial increase of shoe exports from the SAR led to the launch of the investigation. From April to December in 2005 some 0.5 million pairs of shoes were exported to the EU from Macau, according to the journal. After the anti-dumping levy was imposed on the mainland in 2006 exports from Macau increased dramatically to eight million pairs between April and December and 8.5 million during the same period of 2007.

“These findings support the allegation that goods have been consigned from China via the Macao SAR to the Community,” the journal reported.

Friday, 09 May 2008

Source: www.macaudailytimesnews.com