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The Vietnam News

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Vietnam opposes EC punitive duty on shoes

HO CHI MINH CITY - The Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) and shoemakers yesterday protested a proposal by the European Commission (EC) to slap an anti-dumping duty of 10% on leather shoe and children’s footwear imports from Vietnam. Local exporters are not selling leather shoes at below cost to the European Union (EU) market, Lefaso said yesterday, calling for the EC to abolish the proposed duty.

Despite some member states having rejected two previous proposals this summer, the EC on Wednesday adopted the proposal by trade commissioner Peter Mandelson to levy a 16.5% duty on leather shoes entering the EU market from China and 10% duty on those from Vietnam. The proposal has now been put forward to the bloc’s 25 trade ministers who have one month to decide on the issue before temporary duties expire. The duty proposed for shoe imports from Vietnam is lower than the previously sought 16.8%.

The EU is Vietnam’s biggest footwear importer, accounting for 75% of the country’s total footwear shipments. Vietnam’s January-August shoe exports totaled US$2.4 billion, up 22% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Trade. Shipments to ASEAN countries and some other big markets, including the U.S. and Canada, have been rising sharply Lefaso vice chairman Nguyen Duc Thuan told the Daily that leather shoes accounted for 15% of Vietnam’s total footwear exports and that shipments of this type of shoe to the EU had been falling sharply due to the anti-dumping case.

The EC move will have a negative impact on the footwear industry’s exports in the coming time, so shoemakers have actively been finding new markets to cushion the impact, Thuan said. Vietnam is the fourth largest footwear exporter to the EU behind China, Hong Kong and Italy, with a total export value last year reaching US$2.3 billion.

By Van Bao - The Saigon Times Daily - September 1st, 2006.