Commission under fire in shoe appeal

Date: 22/01/1998

By Peter Chapman

THE Foreign Trade Association has prepared a dossier of evidence to support its claim that the European Commission overstepped the mark in an anti-dumping probe into imported Chinese and Indonesian shoes with textile uppers.

The EU importers' lobby group claims that the Commission used faulty sampling methods to find out how many Union firms supported anti-dumping measures on the shoes.

The Commission needed at least 25% of the industry to support it and put forward prima facie evidence of injury from 'dumped' shoes during its 1995 investigation. The institution later claimed it had won the backing of 25.6% of the industry.

"I think that is a nice figure for the Commission," commented the FTA's Henrik Abma.

The association hopes to be able to join the British Shoe Corporation and other EU importers in their ongoing case in the European Court of First Instance. All want to see the decision to impose the interim duties ranging from 0% to 36.5% on Indonesian imports and 94.1% on those from China overturned.

The FTA claims evidence exists which shows the Commission knew that the 28 firms which cooperated with its inquiry represented only 18% of the relevant sector, but failed to reveal it.

Legal adviser James Searles of law firm Oppenheimer Wolff and Donnelly said it was "seeking to have this evidence introduced" in the Court. "It is difficult not to use the words 'cover-up'," he added.

The FTA also contends that the 25.6% figure is in any case no longer valid since the Commission narrowed the scope of its anti-dumping investigation to exclude indoor carpet slippers. This means the comments of over one-third of the original 28 companies which cooperated with the Commission were no longer relevant to the inquiry.

The case is one of a series in which the FTA has put the Commission's role in anti-dumping cases under the spotlight.

It has also been a thorn in the institution's side in a case involving allegedly dumped bedlinen from Pakistan, India and Egypt, which industry claims was mishandled.

The FTA decided today (22 January) to launch further legal action against definitive duties on bedlinen. It has also joined forces with UK cotton importer Broome & Wellington to protest against the reopening of an anti-dumping inquiry into imports from Asia of the basic 'greycloth' which EU textile companies turn into finished products.

"The FTA believes that legal appeals are becoming an increasingly important means for importers to ensure proper application of the EU's anti-dumping rules," said Abma.