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EC keeps import duties on Vietnamese shoes
Consumers will continue to foot the bill as the European Commission (EC) decides to keep the tariffs on shoes from Vietnam and China in order to protect Italian, Spanish and Portuguese producers, experts say.
The decision has been taken over the objections of EU consumers.
An EC review had been opened to look into whether the duties of 10 percent on Vietnamese and 16.5 percent on Chinese leather footwear should be allowed to lapse.
The levies, which were due to expire October 7 after two years, will now automatically stay in place for as long as 15 months while the EC examines whether to re-apply the trade protection to counter what it claims to be below-cost – or “dumped” – imports.
The review “will determine whether the expiry of the measures would be likely, or unlikely, to lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury,” the 27-nation EU's regulatory arm in Brussels said Friday in its Official Journal.
The EC’s punitive measures, introduced in 2006, affect 11 of every 100 pair of shoes sold in Europe, including children's footwear.
Vietnam’s exports to the EU plunged by 10 percent to 91 million pairs last year from 102 million a year earlier.
More than 40,000 Vietnamese workers have lost jobs since the EU imposed the duties, the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association said in September. Vietnam's concerns have been echoed by EU retail and consumer groups.
Nguyen Duc Thuan, the association’s chairman, told Thanh Nien Daily Thursday it has no comments about the commission’s decision but said local producers were waiting for a “fair verdict” from the review.
Nguyen Trung Dung, deputy director general of the Competition
Administration Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said local shoe producers should collaborate with the commission in the review.
If they were unwilling, the verdict may be unfavorable, Dung told shoemakers in a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday.
Vietnamese shoemakers will also have to pay almost double the current duties of 3.6 percent on footwear exported to Europe next year after the EU removed Vietnam’s footwear industry from a preferential tariff program for exports to the bloc in April.
Antonio Berenguer, trade counselor at the EC delegation to Vietnam, said Vietnam could enjoy zero percent tariffs if the EU and ASEAN, the 10-member Southeast Asia bloc, could reach a free trade deal. Negotiations for such an agreement are ongoing.
Consumers ignored
“Consumers, who already face huge price increases, namely in the food and energy sectors, have had to pay the bill for long enough,” Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumers' Organization, said Thursday. “The continuation of the protectionist anti-dumping duties on shoe imports is a missed opportunity for the EU to take their concerns seriously, rather than continuing old-fashioned protectionist policies.”
In a sign of the internal political battle that may erupt again in Europe, 15 EU nations were opposed to opening an expiration review while 12 countries endorsed it when the commission consulted them in September.
The commission, which said the legal conditions are “clearly met” for a review, pledged to try to complete it in less than 12 months to 15 months. The commission will have to make a recommendation to EU governments on whether to renew the trade protection.
Thanhnien
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