EU may have "Made In" label laws in 2011

BRUSSELS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The European Union could introduce new labelling rules as early as next year to shield makers of shoes, screws and other products from cheaper Asian imports, with European Parliament backing, a leading EU lawmaker said Friday.

"Following parliament's strong support, we hope that we can agree to new rules in the first half of next year," said Cristiana Muscardini, a conservative Italian deputy who led the debate on the issue in the parliament.

Legislators voted 525-49 on Thursday to ensure imported shoes, clothes, leather, furniture and industrial products worth billions of euros carry a label denoting where they were made, when sold in the 27-member EU.

The vote, in which 44 lawmakers abstained, opens the way for talks between EU lawmakers and national governments on full EU-wide legislation.

The negotiations are expected to be lengthy and likely to highlight divisions among EU lawmakers and member states, pitting countries with large manufacturing bases against those that mainly import and distribute foreign goods.

States including Italy, Spain and Portugal have long pushed for mandatory "Made In" labels, which they hope will act as a brake on growing low-cost imports, whether Chinese furniture and roof tiles, Indian clothes or Vietnamese shoes -- by harnessing EU consumer loyalty to European-made goods.

They argue that the EU's main trading partners, including China, the United States and Japan, already have similar rules on marking the origin of imported goods.

Opposing them are distribution-heavy states such as Sweden and Britain, which regard the law as part of a creeping protectionism that threatens Europe's competitiveness and its recovery from economic crisis.

Concerned about increasing red tape and falling profits, these states want optional labelling to continue.

Plans to demand labelling of foreign-made industrial goods from bricks, tiles and screws to inner tubes and taps are likely to come under greatest pressure. Some fear that mass-labelling such goods could cost more than their basic production.

(Reporting by Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, editing by Rex Merrifield and Mark Heinrich)