Wenzhou Shoe Traders Globally Address Trade Barriers

After the financial crisis, various international trade barriers against China continued. According to statistics from Wenzhou Municipal Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, Wenzhou's export products have met with investigations from anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, and “337” initiated by more than 20 countries and regions including the United States, the European Union, and Japan. The amount was more than US$100 million. To this end, Wenzhou's major export-oriented industries have actively established foreign trade warning points. At present, there are six provincial-level foreign trade warning demonstration sites, and 13 city-level trade barrier warning response service points, covering clothing, glasses, shoe leather and other industries. .

However, these government-led warning points are still limited to domestic ones. "The fastest foreign trade information channel is definitely from overseas local markets, and Wenzhou people all over the world are the best sources of information," said Yang Xumai, deputy secretary general of the Wenzhou Optical Chamber of Commerce.

With the same practice as the optician chamber of commerce, there is the City Shoe Industry Association, and their actions are actually one step ahead. Last May, the Wenzhou Shoe Industry Association took the opportunity of establishing the Italian (China) Footwear Chamber of Commerce to try to establish the "Wenzhou Footwear Industry to Deal with EU Anti-dumping Contact Points" and "Wenzhou Shoes Foreign Trade Early Warning Contact Point."

Since the beginning of this year, the “risk” that these overseas trade warning “radar” searched has been sent to use. On July 16, the Turkish Chamber of Commerce’s Turkish warning point promptly issued “alarms” for new changes in local customs duties, while some small trade frictions on mirror frames and lenses in the city of Wenzhou were also taken seriously by the industry. And resolved promptly. Recently, a shoe company in Wenzhou took advantage of the Italian warning points of the Leather Shoe Association to successfully avoid a loss worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. Xie Yufang, secretary general of the Municipal Leather Industry Association, said: "We are equal to each other's position. Only 'wind ears' can immediately know and respond promptly if there is a sign of trouble."