EU Delays Final Decision on Duties on Vietnam Shoes

Twenty five EU members remain split and unable to reach an agreement on the imposition of anti-dumping duties on shoe imports from Vietnam and China, making the EU to delay its final decision on the issue to the end of next week (October 5), one day before the current temporary antidumping duties expire.

 

So far, a majority of the 25-member bloc led by Nordic countries who inherently support trade liberalization and globalization process have always protested the plan to slap anti-dumping tariffs on leather shoes imported from the Asian countries initiated by a group of some other members led by Italy, a large leather shoe producer.

 

Italy said cheap imports of leather-capped shoes and some other goods from Asian countries are threatening its economic sectors and pushing a large number of workers into unemployment.   

 

Meanwhile, European retailers and distributors strongly rejected the EC’s plan to apply anti-dumping duties, considering it as a protectionism measure that causes negative impacts on consumers.   

 

Vietnam and China have for many times raised objections to the EC’s accusation of dumping and claimed that the EU's move is only to protect local manufacturers. 

 

Last year, Vietnam shipped 265 million pairs of leather shoes to the EU market while China’s figure was 1.25 billion pairs, accounting for half of the total volume of shoes sold in the entire Europe.

 

In the first eight months of 2006, Vietnam’s footwear shipments to the EU was estimated to increase by 15 per cent on-year to $1.17 billion, accounting for some 50 per cent of the country’s total shoe export revenue in the period.