FICC against shoe manufacturers: call for dumping levy on footwear imports

Mr. Uriel Lynn, president of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce issued last week a strong statement against shoe manufacturers call for dumping levy on footwear imports
 
Earlier last week the shoe manufacturers argued that imports of footwear from the Far East at exceptionally cheap prices was causing severe harm to the local sector.
 
Manufacturers Association spokesman Gershon Broshi issued last week a letter to the Ministry of Trade noting that in 2005 footwear imports from Asia increased 9.5% and from China by 24%. 26 million items of footwear were imported from the Far East at a cost $124.4 million. Imports from China alone increased to 20.7 million items at a cost of $80.3 million.
 
Footwear manufacturers and the Manufacturers Association asked the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Labor to impose a dumping levy on imports from the Far East, in line with the EU, which is set to impose a 20% levy on imports of leather goods from most countries in the Far East.
 
Opposing the request Lynn argued that imposing dumping levy would return the Israeli economy 25 years back to a period of protecting inefficient local industries.
 
Lynn added that the decision taken in the early 90s to open the footwear market to competition contributed to the overall price reduction. He noted that during the last eight years footwear prices decreased by 44.6%, ( by almost 5.6% annually), compared to average increase of 2.5% in the cost of living index.