The European Union's trade chief decided to launch a probe into whether Chinese shoes are being dumped on the EU market after workers demonstrated in Brussels yesterday.

　　"Peter Mandelson has decided to recommend to the (European) Commission the launching of an investigation on anti-dumping for (Chinese) shoes," said commission spokeswoman Claude Veron-Reville.

　　If approved by the full EU executive, the probe would open at the end of this month, she added.

　　The EU would impose additional duties on China's shoe exports if the probe finds that they are being sold at below-production cost prices in the bloc.

　　Representatives of Europe's footwear industry met Mandelson earlier yesterday and urged the EU to impose emergency anti-dumping duties on Chinese shoe imports, which they claim have leapt by close to 700 percent since the start of this year.

　　(Reuters)