EU keeps its eye on Vietnam shoemakers

Exporters of leather-upper shoes have faced new difficulties to accessing the European market even though the EU lifted its anti-dumping tariff on April 1.

This was said by the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) general secretary Nguyen Thi Tong at a workshop in Hanoi on September 20.

The end of the 10-percent tariff, which has been imposed for four years, appears to make Vietnamese shoes more competitive with rival producers like India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, which has not been slapped with anti-dumping tariffs and may have even enjoyed tariff preferences, Tong said.

Nevertheless, the EU has announced a programme under which it will continue to monitor leather-upper shoes exported to the EU from Vietnam for one year, according to a representative of the Multilateral Trade Assistance Project (MUTRAP III).

If the monitors find that the volume of shoes imported into the EU from Vietnam continue to increase considerably in spite of falling prices, the EU might view it as evidence of “continuation or repetition of dumping” by Vietnamese exporters and would re-impose the tariff without any further investigation.

Therefore, exporters should report to Lefaso and the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) to avoid the reimposition of anti-dumping duties, said Vu Ba Phu, VCA deputy director.

Reports should include the quantity and value of products exported to the EU and reflect a reasonable increase in monthly export earnings, he said.

Tags: Vietnam Shoemakers

Posted by VBN on Sep 22 2011. Filed under Garment Textile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry