He told Thanh Nien Daily yesterday that an anti-dumping tariff of 10 percent was slapped on non-athletic leather shoes imported from Vietnam on the charge that they were being sold at unfair prices in the EU market in 2006.

This hit the producers and their workers hard, Thuan said.

He said that an association survey found at least three factories of Hai Phong, An Giang and Hanoi leather shoe companies had shut down after receiving no orders from the EU bloc.

He said customers had moved their orders to other countries and left local factories in the lurch.

The factories reduced their capacity before firing thousands of white and blue-collar workers.

At least 20 to 25 percent of about 600-700 footwear businesses were hurt by the commission’s punitive measures that will expire in October, and 40,000 workers had lost their jobs in 2006-2008, according to Lefaso.

Thuan said families of female workers, who account for 90 percent of the industry’s labor force, were badly impacted as the workers mostly from poor provinces were the main income earners for their families.

Diep Thanh Kiet, vice chairman of Ho Chi Minh City’s Leather and Shoes Association, said leather shoes exports to the bloc declined since early 2007 due to higher import tariffs, particularly impacting small and medium-sized businesses, which account for 70 percent of the country’s shoe production.

Vietnam sold about 102 million pairs of leather shoes during the 2005-2006 investigation period, but this fell to 91 million pairs in 2007, as local businesses struggled to compete with other exporters to the union, according to Lefaso.

Another hurdle The local shoes industry faces yet another challenge as WTO membership obligations take their toll, with the EU market, which consumes 60 percent of the nation’s exports, set to lift preferential tariffs on imports from early next year.

Vietnam has benefited for years from the preferential tariffs offered by the commission to 176 developing countries and territories.

Now its footwear products will have import taxes of about five percent levied on them instead of the current zero percent.

The commission will have a meeting early next month to decide whether to stop or renew the antidumping tariffs on shoe imports from Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese footwear makers have strongly opposed a proposal by the Italian Shoe Manufacturer’s Association (ANCI) that the commission renews the tariffs on non-athletic leather shoes imported from Vietnam and China for another five years.

Reported by Minh Quang