Exports from Macau fall
31/07/2008
The Special Administrative Region of Macau has been at the centre of a footwear controversy. The European Union has accused the former Portuguese colony of acting as a staging post for exports of shoes from China to get round the anti-dumping measures that have been in place against leather shoes from China since 2006.
The European footwear industry complained last year that Chinese manufacturers were using trans-shipment practices to get round the policy. In April this year, the EU added Macau to the list of countries to which the anti-dumping measures would apply.
Macau has a population of 500,000 and, according to the EU, imported 40,000 pairs of shoes from China in 2005. In 2007, the figure was 5.1 million pairs. The European trading block insisted that China's use of the Special Administrative Region as a staging post for footwear exports was the only plausible explanation.
However, new figures suggest that the trend may have gone into reverse.
Exports of footwear from Macau for the first half of this year were 56.3% lower than for the first six months of 2007.
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