It is not just all good things that come to an end. Some bad ones do too. Yesterday, European Union trade officials rejected a plan to extend the “anti-dumping” duties levied on shoe imports from China and Vietnam. Even so, the episode points up the opaque and arbitrary nature of EU trade laws.
The duties, imposed for two years on imports sold below the price in the exporting country's home market, began in 2006 after lobbying by producer countries such as Spain and Italy. As the end-date approached the European Commission was pressed to keep the duties for a further 15 months. The Commission should have stood up to this lobby: it did not.
Anti-dumping duties are generally a bad idea. There may a case for protecting an industry with strategic importance. But shoes are less strategic even than yoghurts. If Beijing wants to subsidise European consumers' shoe habits, by sending footwear halfway around the globe, it should be able to do so. Shoemaking is not an industry with high barriers to entry, nor one where predatory pricing delivers an unfair competitive advantage.