According to the statistics from the General Administration of Customs

With China-ASEAN FTA coming into full force on January 1, 2010, 7,000 trading items covered by the agreements around the trade of products and services will be tariff-free, giving Chinese new soccer cleats shoemakers, who are facing EU's high anti-dumping duties, an opportunity to ease the impacts.

The EU began levying anti-dumping duties as high as 16.5 percent against Chinese leather shoes on Oct. 5, 2006. On December 22, 2009, EU governments approved the 15-month extension of anti-dumping duties on Chinese leather shoes.

Wu Zhenchang, chairman of Chuangxin Shoemaking Company and founder of a commercial association aiming to cope with the EU's anti-dumping measures against Chinese leather shoes, noted he would go ahead and take chance around the China-ASEAN FTA and transfer part of his assembly lines to Southeast Parts of asia for example Indonesia and Cambodia. "It will help to avoid trade frictions," he said.

Guangzhou-based Chuangxin's export declined by 30 percent to 40 % in '09. "Our export towards the EU accounts for less than 10 % in our total export. However, to reduce costs, global footwear giants including Adidas and Nike gave orders for their factories in the Southeast Asia," said Wu. "Not only products aiming in the EU market, however the whole order of the same type to be sold worldwide."

According to the statistics from the General Administration of Customs, China exported 6.74 billion pairs of shoes within the first 10 months of 2009, down 3.4 % every year. The general worth of shoes exported to the ASEAN reached 710 million U.S. dollars, up 49 percent compared with the same period 2008, while export to the U.S. and also the EU both declined.

Recycleables for shoes will enjoy zero-tariff after the China-ASEAN FTA comes into force on January. "With the zero-tariff policy and the low labor costs within the Southeast Asia, we are getting ready to move our assembling lines there, to produce shoes to be removed within the EU and the ASEAN market," Wu said.

However, there are also risks in investing in the ASEAN. Huajian Group, certainly one of China's top women's shoes cheap nike magista exporters, has closed its factories in Vietnam. Huajian's chairman Zhang Huarong said that the company encountered great operation and management difficulties in Vietnam because of poor supporting industries and unfamiliarity with the cultures there.

Lan Xuanpu, the overall secretary of Asia Footwear Inc, noticed that after FTA agreements come into effect, shoes cheap soccer cleats trade between China and the ASEAN will speed up. Closer trade ties will also boost Chinese shoemakers' investment in the ASEAN. However, due to inadequate supporting facilities for shoe-making, there won't be a massive transfer.