BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission’s plan to introduce anti-dumping measures on leather shoes imported from China and Vietnam has run into opposition from many European countries, industry sources said yesterday. The proposal has once again exposed a rift in the European Union on how the bloc should face globalization. Anti-dumping experts from European Union member states spoke out against the proposal in a two-day meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and yesterday, suggesting it risked being rejected when eventually put to the vote, the sources said. Free-trading Nordic countries dispute the need for anti-dumping measures at all, while shoe-producing EU states, led by Italy, which have complained that they face unfair competition from Asia, say the plan is not tough enough. “The Commission is facing an unholy alliance. It could struggle to get the measures approved,” said one source. The proposal must be cleared by EU member states by September in order to come into force in October. That is when preliminary EU anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from China and Vietnam are due to expire.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey’s unemployment rate, measured on a three-month moving average, fell to 9.9 percent in the March-May period, from 10.9 percent between February and April, the Turkey Statistics Institute said yesterday. In the same period last year, the jobless rate was 10.0 percent. Despite strong economic growth, unemployment - at 10.3 percent for the whole of 2005 - has remained a weak spot as large numbers of young people enter the labor market. The number of working people rose 179,000 from a year earlier in April to 22.172 million. The number working in agriculture fell to 747,000 during this period. Unemployment slipped to 2.436 million in April from 2.439 million a year earlier, the data showed.

Leading Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes and unit Efes Breweries International have mandated Citibank and HSBC to arrange a $500 million term loan to refinance existing debt, EBI said yesterday. It said that part of the facility would take the place of a planned Eurobond issue that the company said it was considering in May. The loan refinances a bridge loan of $500 million provided in February, EBI said. Efes said in February it was using the cash to finance EBI’s growth in Russia, including the acquisition of a 92.3 percent stake in the Krasny Vostok Brewing Group. (Reuters)

Croatia’s unemployment rate fell to 16.0 percent in June from 16.7 percent in May, the State Statistics Bureau said yesterday, preliminary details compiled yesterday by the Statistics and Employment Bureau showed. (Reuters)