European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called for punitive duties to be imposed on imports of Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes sold at illegally low prices, confirming earlier reports, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mandelson said Thursday that Brussels investigators had found "compelling evidence" that Chinese and Vietnamese shoemakers have been selling at artificially low prices, a practice which is illegal under global anti-dumping trade rules. The duties will affect nine of every 100 pairs of shoes sold in Europe this year but exempts all sports shoes priced above US$10.71 and children's shoes up to a size 37.5, the average female shoe size in Italy. The exemption is widely seen as appeasing large European retailers and shoemakers such as Adidas-Salomon AG and Puma AS, who moved their production to Asia in the 1990s.
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