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EU vote bodes well for Vietnamese shoes
The European Union (EU)’s anti-dumping advisory committee did not agree on a proposal to extend anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese leather-capped shoes, with 15 countries voting against it.
Now, many footwear companies and industry experts are saying that Vietnamese leather shoes will likely enjoy a huge boost in sales next year.
The Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso), Diep Thanh Kiet, forecast that the footwear sector will see a growth of at least 15-20 percent in 2010, as long as there is a rebound in exports and the EC drops its proposal to extend anti-dumping duties.
Director Nguyen Duy Thuan of the HCM City-based Hiep An Footwear Joint Stock Company, which has exported its products to the EU market for many years, said he anticipates that orders for his company’s shoes will increase by at least 30-40 percent as a result. Revenue from EU exports of the leather-capped shoes currently accounts for around US$300,000 out of an annual total of US$3.2 million, said Thuan. With the trade barrier lifted, this figure is expected to increase to US$500,000, at minimum, next year, he added.
Director Truong Thuy Lien of the Lien Phat Shoes Ltd. Co. in the southern province of Binh Duong said that the number of her company’s orders will increase by at least 10 percent from its current output of 1.8 million pairs of shoes a year.
But experts also warned that the nation’s footwear exports to the EU will face some stiff competition from Chinese products.
They suggested Vietnam’s footwear companies carry out business plans to diversify both product-lines and export markets so as to limit any adverse impact on their business as well as their workers’ income.
Lefaso Deputy Chairman Kiet is in accord with this assessment, saying that footwear businesses should not focus on the EU market alone, but find a healthy balance between export growth and domestic supply, to stand firm against fluctuations in any one given market.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam earned more than US$3.2 billion from footwear exports in the first ten months of the year with US$1.56 billion coming from export growth to the EU market, of which leather-capped shoe exports accounted for US$800 million.
Starting in October 2006, the European Commission imposed anti-dumping tariffs of 16.5 percent on Chinese and 10 percent on Vietnamese leather shoes. However, European commercial organizations as well as footwear makers and consumers have voiced strong opposition to the measure many times.
At a meeting of the EU’s anti-dumping advisory committee on November 19, 15 of the 27 EU countries voted against renewing the anti-dumping duties for an additional 15 months.
VOV
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