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EC tax decision to hurt Vietnam shoe industry: official
The recent European Commission’s decision to extend anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese shoes is disappointing and will hurt the local footwear industry, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien has said.
He said the decision has been made despite the objections of the majority of European Union members. Last month, 15 of 27 member-states voted against the proposal to extend the anti-dumping duties.
About half a million workers in the industry have been affected, most of them women, Bien said.
Since the EU has also decided to withdraw Vietnamese footwear from its preferential tariff program – known as the Generalized Special Preferences – starting next year, the anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese shoes would severely hurt the industry, he warned.
An EC review opened last Thursday to consider whether the duties of 10 percent on Vietnamese and 16.5 percent on Chinese leather footwear should continue.
The levies, due to expire today after being in force for two years, will now stay in place for as long as 15 months while the EC examines whether to re-apply the tax.
Bien said the review should be carried out quickly and fairly to help both Vietnamese and European businesses as well as give European consumers a chance to buy Vietnamese leather shoes, which are reasonably priced.
As for Vietnamese footwear businesses, they should cooperate with EC anti-dumping investigators, he said.
They should also diversify their products and find new markets for them to offset the losses caused by the European move, he said, promising his ministry and related agencies would try their best to assist them.
Vietnam’s leather-shoes export to the EU plunged 10 percent last year to 91 million pairs.
Thanhnien
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