The Trade Defense Department of the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Decom/Secex), linked to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) confirmed the support to the extension of the anti-dumping duties applied to footwear originating from China. No final decision was made yet by the authorities, as an investigation is still in course.

Abicalçados, the Brazilian Footwear Association, who filed the petition for the extension in March this year, congratulated the positive outcome, as this results from the “recognition that the Brazilian industry would be damaged in case the duty was to be terminated”.

According to Heitor Klein, President of Abicalçados: "The conditions are the same that were applied five years ago, when the duty was established. The domestic industry, as we warned, could not stand competition with the Chinese products without a duty that would maintain equal competitive conditions".

Abicalçados underlined that among the most important moments in the history of the Brazilian footwear industry was the adoption of the anti-dumping duty against Chinese footwear, an essential measure to prevent deterioration of the sector’s performance. The reduced price of imported Chinese footwear made the competition impossible for Brazilian products, especially in the sports segment, as China focuses on production of this type of shoes for the leading international brands in the industry.

Since 2005, Abicalçados has been very active pressing the authorities to adopt an anti-dumping duty, with an aim to “give back minimum conditions of competitiveness for Brazilian shoes in its domestic market”. The process was long and, in September 2009, the organization witnessed the adoption of a provisional anti-dumping duty against such products with the application of a 12.47 US dollars duty per pair imported. Valid for six months, the duty was extended for five years in March 2010, when the value of the rate was fixed around 13.85 US dollars.

According to Heitor Klein, the duty was instrumental: "To get an idea of the importance of the measure, in the six months immediately after the implementation of the duty the sector recovered more than 40 000 jobs”

According to data prepared by Abicalçados in 2008 imports of footwear from China reached 218.7 million US dollars and after in 2010 that number dropped to less than 55 million US dollars.