China is urging the EU to reconsider its proposed sanction on Chinese shoe imports, a senior commerce official said yesterday.

The EU's proposed plan to impose an anti-dumping duty on imported Chinese shoes is unjust, said Wang Shichun, director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports.

China urged the EU to reconsider its stance on the shoe industry and review the case taking into account the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations, Wang said.

He noted that all 13 manufacturers investigated were private or joint-venture companies that fully met the market economy standards of the EU.

More than 130 Chinese shoe companies are involved in the legal action but 90 percent of them were not covered by the investigation, said Wang. He added that it was unfair to deny their market economy status without thoroughly checking all the facts.

Wang said it wasn't legitimate for the EU to impose unified duties on all Chinese shoes as the products in this case fell into 33 categories, all with different qualities and prices.

The decision to impose duties should not be agreed upon by simply sampling and such decisions could only be made following full investigations of each business, Wang said.

He added that all the companies involved had returned questionnaires on market economy to the EU seeking to be fairly treated but as yet none had received a reply from it.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson announced late February a plan to impose anti-dumping duties on imported Chinese and Vietnamese shoes, saying the two nations were engaged in "uncompetitive behavior."

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)