Vietnam protests against EU duty

At a press conference on March 27, 2006, the Vietnam Leather & Footwear Association (Lefaso) officially announced that the country's footwear industry is facing losses when the EU applies anti-dumping duties. The projected rate will be 4.2% from April 7; 8.4% from June 2; 12.6% from July 14 and 16.8% from September 15. The price of each pair of Vietnamese made leather shoes exported to the EU market is expected to increase by 1.5-2 euros. Though sports footwear and children's shoes are not subject to anti-dumping duties, losses for the footwear industry in Vietnam could be huge. Lefaso chairman Nguyen Gia Thao said that the annual export value of Vietnam's footwear industry to the EU market is $2.5 billion, of which, $88 million is from shoes with leather uppers. and this value is badly affected by anti-dumping duties. In the final quarter of last year, the number of orders fell drastically and the number of orders for leather-uppered shoes has reduced by more than one third in comparison with 2004.