China's Shoe Enterprises Germany Suffers Trade Barriers

Chinese shoe companies have not yet won the EU's anti-dumping duties on Chinese leather shoes, and now may face the technical barriers to be imposed by Germany soon.

A few days ago, the German Federal Ministry of food, agriculture and consumer protection issued the No. eleventh TBT bulletin, the eighteenth revision of the act of commodity law, which limits the manufacture of leather by tanning and chrome tanning. It stipulates that leather products that are in contact with human body, including leather bags, knapsacks, textiles, watchbands, shoes and toys, can not detect six valent chromium in its final products. The notification is to be approved and entered into force this year.

The regulations will affect the export of Chinese shoe products. For this reason, some Chinese shoe enterprises have expressed confidence that they can break through this difficulty through the experience of dealing with all kinds of technical barriers before and through communication and coordination with the other side.

Chen Zhanguang, Deputy Secretary General of China Leather Industry Association, told the first Financial Daily yesterday that this is a technical barrier to trade. Technical barriers are a double-edged sword for Chinese shoe enterprises. On the one hand, they may increase the cost of Chinese shoemaking, and on the other hand, it will also urge Chinese leather enterprises to increase their research and development efforts.

Chen Zhanguang said that a very important point is to have a correct view of leather chrome tanning agents. Leather processing uses trivalent chromium, not six valent chromium. Trivalent chromium and six valent chromium have completely different properties. Trivalent chromium has good tanning property, is very stable, harmless to human body, and even the essential trace elements of human body. The six valent chromium is toxic without tanning. In the actual transportation or storage process, trace trivalent chromium in leather will occasionally turn into six valent chromium under special circumstances. Even so, the amount of six valent chromium is also very low, which will not cause harm to the human body.

"The problem of six valent chromium in leather itself is a controversial topic. There are some problems in its detection methods. There is no conclusion on the detection limit and the amount of damage. The error and other reasons will cause the six valent chromium to exceed the standard. Chrome tanning has been used for more than 100 years. Practice has proved that chrome tanning leather is safe. Chen Zhanguang said, "at present, 85% of the leather is processed from trivalent chrome tanning agent. This tanning agent is the best material found at present. It can make leather products have good strength, handle and heat resistance. It is also the widely used tanning material in leather industry worldwide. After the German law was introduced, it will have an impact on all EU countries including leather producers, including Italy. "

Chen Zhanguang also pointed out that we should pay attention to this Law and prevent trivalent chromium from oxidizing to six valence chromium through our own efforts. How to put an end to this situation, the global leather enterprises including China are now trying to find relevant solutions. Even Italy, Spain and other countries with leather technology in the forefront have not yet cracked the problem, so they will consult with Germany on these issues and suggest that they consider the practical operation.

Many shoe companies interviewed by our reporter yesterday said that they had not yet received the request from German customers for testing standards in this respect. A new standard was launched with a practical inspection process, so long as it is reasonable, Chinese shoe enterprises can achieve the target.

Guo Weiwen, Secretary General of Guangdong footwear alliance, said in an interview with this newspaper that in the past ten years, not only Europe, but also the world's safety requirements for footwear products are becoming more and more stringent, and increasingly subdivided into every shoe product, for example, the quality of children's shoes is monitored very strictly, and the standard is constantly updating. Most shoe manufacturers pay more and more attention to the detection of various chemical components, which will increase the cost of Chinese footwear enterprises to a certain extent. However, by continuously upgrading research and development and expanding the scale of production, the cost of testing can be digested.