The opposition, made at a press conference held here by Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Industry and Trade, followed that the EU made final decision on Dec. 22 by voting to extend anti-dumping duties on shoes from Vietnam for another 15 months.

Nga said the imposition of anti-dumping measure is unobjective, unfair for Vietnamese footwear production and business.

The decision contrasts to the consistent policy of European community which supports the tendency of trade liberalization and is not in line with the development of economic and trade relations between Vietnam and the European community, said Nga.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Danh Vinh said that the government of Vietnam gives no price subsidy to the country's footwear sectors.

There is no possibility that Vietnamese companies used dumping act to distort the competition as well as threaten the production and business activities of European footwear producers, said Vinh.

Vinh said that the EU's decision will cause double negative impacts on Vietnamese footwear industry because the EU has recently decided to exclude Vietnam from the list of countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) scheme.

The export turnover of upper leather footwear of Vietnam to EU has decreased significantly. During first nine months this year, Vietnam raked in only 1.6 billion U.S. dollars from footwear export to EU market, down 11.2 percent year-on-year.

The imposed tax on Vietnam's exported shoes over the past three years caused serious impacts on Vietnamese footwear makers employing more than 650,000 workers.

The imposition of anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese footwear not only had adverse impacts on Vietnamese footwear producers, exporters and jobs of more than half a million workers but also significantly affected common interests of European investors, distributors, retailers and consumers, said Vinh.

The EU duty extensions will apply to middle and high-end upper leather shoes, the major export staples of Vietnam's leather and footwear industry.

Earlier, at the meeting of the EU anti-dumping advisory committee on Nov. 19 to collect opinions of EU member states regarding the European Commission (EC)'s proposal for 15 months extension of the anti-dumping duties, 15 out of 27 EU member states voted against EC's proposal.

The EU first imposed the anti-dumping duties on Vietnam in 2006 after European shoe producers claimed that they were unable to compete against low-cost producers of Vietnam.

Xinhua - December 23, 2009