The European Commission (EC) plans to apply a quota system on leather shoes imported from Vietnam and China, considering it a solution to a prolonged controversy over the issue in which the EC has imposed anti-dumping tariffs against the products from the two Asian countries, according to diplomats of the European Union (EU).
Accordingly, the EC will adopt normal duties on 95 million pairs of shoes imported from Vietnam and 140 million pairs from China annually. In addition, the commission will also apply punitive tariffs of 29.5 per cent and 23 per cent on leather shoes shipped from Vietnam and China, respectively.
Child shoes, which were exempted from the EU’s imposition last April, are likely to be included in the EC’s new quota system, said an EU diplomat.
Now, the new quota system has not been officially announced to EU member countries. However, the EC has sent the detailed plan with analyzed reports to the Governments of countries in the bloc. The EC will be able to issue a final decision on this plan in the coming months, the diplomat said.
The EC decided to launch an anti-dumping investigation into Vietnam’s 33 categories of leather-capped shoes following a lawsuit filed by the European Leather Producers’ Union on May 30, 2005.
Among the 60 Vietnamese shoe manufacturers listed in the lawsuit, the EC chose eight companies for its investigations including Vietnam Pou Yuen, Vietnam Pou Chen, Taekwang Vina, Kainan Joint Venture, Shoes 32, Dona Bitis’, Binh Tien Import and Export, and Haiphong Shoes.
The EC on March 23 in Brussels (Belgium) officially ratified the EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson’s proposal to impose anti-dumping tariffs on leather shoes, excluding sporting shoes and children’s shoes, imported from Vietnam. The initial tax rate was 4.2 per cent as of April, and then gradually increases to 16.8 per cent after five months.
According to a recent survey jointly conducted by Action Aid International Vietnam (AAV) and the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso), as many as 500,000 workers employed directly in Vietnam’s leather footwear industry are likely to become redundant due to the EU’s punitive duties.
The survey also showed that the EC’s tariffs have caused a sharp reduction in the orders, output and income of many Vietnamese footwear enterprises. 76 per cent of surveyed companies reported an income fall of between 15-60 per cent as compared with 2004. They have to narrow their production due to the fall in orders.
Vietnam and China export an estimated $4 billion worth shoes annually to the EU, supplying over 60 per cent of its imports.
Liberated Saigon, VietNamNet
Vietnamese
