Asia shoes fight within EU set to go to the wire
A final decision is now likely to be left to EU ministers on Oct. 5, a day before provisional duties on the shoes expire, diplomats who attended the meeting said.
The row has highlighted a north-south rift in the EU on how the 25-nation bloc should respond to competition from Asia.
Italy has led a push by other shoe-producing EU countries in favor of the duties of 16.5 percent for leather shoes from China and 10 percent for Vietnam for the next five years.
But Nordic countries, which traditionally favor free trade, have tried to hold together a rival group to block the measures.
A majority of EU countries opposed the plan for the duties in a vote last month.
But last week Austria, previously in the "no" camp, said it could back a compromise version of the proposal.
Officials from Cyprus, which has also previously voted against the duties, said they could not take part in any new vote on Wednesday, a move which a Nordic trade specialist suggested it could drop its opposition to the measures.
EU ambassadors are due to discuss the dispute again on Sept. 27 before the meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg on Oct. 5.
The European Commission said earlier this year it found evidence of tax breaks and other state intervention by China and Vietnam which unfairly helped their shoe exporters.
The two countries deny the charge.
Despite the duties proposal being rejected by member states in August, Brussels stuck with the plan.
Commission officials say EU countries which vote against the proposal might leave themselves open to challenge in court.
Brussels imposed provisional anti-dumping duties in April which lapse on Oct. 6.
The shoes row is seen as a prelude to a wider debate in coming months on a possible overhaul of EU anti-dumping rules to reflect the growing investments by European manufacturers in Asia, and the interests of consumers who want cheap goods.