China strongly opposes to the launch of anti-dumping investigation by the European Union to imported Chinese shoes, which lacks practical and legal basis, Chong Quan, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said in Beijing Friday.
  
"China also prompts the EU to make prudent decisions so as to avoid from trade friction," Chong said.
  
The delegation of the European Commission has recently reported to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce that the EU plans to a launch a probe into certain kinds of imported shoes from China at the end of June, Chong said. The Chinese government is highly concerned with it.

The Chinese side holds that the EU has removed the control on the quotas for imported Chinese shoes on January 1 this year, but only several months later the EU launches an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese shoes based on inaccurate statistics, intending to take a new round of restriction. This is against the free trade principle, he added.
  
Chong said China has also noticed that there exist serious errors with the EU's data concerning six categories of imported Chinese shoes from January to April this year, including leather shoes and sleepers, and reality in actual trade was distorted, thus misleading the public and the relevant business circles in the EU.
  
The quantities of imported Chinese shoes rose 581 percent and its total value 433 percent from January to April, according to the EU statistics, and the price of each unit lowered by 28 percent. The relevant Chinese customs figures, nevertheless, showed that the quantity, value and price for each unit of the above shoes was down 22.8 percent, 59.5 percent, and 30 percent respectively.
  
China has lodged a representation with the EU on serious errors related to the methods of sampling and statistics calculations, and it asks the EU side to check the data accurately, and publicizes the true situation with China's shoe exports. 

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2005)