The Federal Official Gazette of Brazil published Circular no. 48 of the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), has opened an investigation into suspected circumvention of imports of footwear from Indonesia and Vietnam and parts and components (soles and uppers) from China. 

Circumvention is an unfair trade practice which attempts to avoid the application of trade protection measures. In this specific case, Brazil has applied anti-dumping measures against China and charges US$ 13.85 per pair of shoes imported from this country since last year, as defined in CAMEX Resolution No. 14, of March 3rd, 2010.

The suspicion to be investigated now is that there have been imports of Chinese footwear parts and components (soles and uppers) and the shoes have been assembled in Brazil. Another issue to be investigated is whether this assembly of the Chinese parts and components is being done in Indonesia and Vietnam for the subsequent sale of the readymade shoes from those countries to Brazil. 

If the investigation finds that this practice has been occurring, the Brazilian legislation provides for the extension of the anti-dumping measures for all footwear imported from Indonesia and Vietnam as well as for parts and components imported from China.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that, due to the investigation process, imports of these products are now under non-automatic licensing to allow monitoring of import coming into the country. Under this regime, the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) has up to 60 days to grant the import license. 

This is the second investigation of this type carried out by MDIC. The first one, which is still in progress, investigated suspected circumvention with regard to blankets from Paraguay and Uruguay and of parts and components from China, in a possible attempt to circumvent an anti-dumping measure in force against blankets imported from China.

02 Nov 2011 

By Richard Smith

Source: fashionnetasia.com