Vietnamese footwear producers are likely to encounter an anti-dumping lawsuit by Mexico, local newspaper Investment reported Wednesday.

The reason for the expected lawsuit is that Vietnam's footwear export volume to Mexico is on sharp rise, while their export prices are lower than those of products made in the North American country, according to the Leather Shoes Industrial Office of Guana State of Mexico.

Vietnam exported nearly 16 million pairs of shoes and sandals with prices of 7-8 U.S. dollars per pair to Mexico in 2005, up from 6.8 million pairs in 2003, according to the office.

The office has asked the Economic Ministry of Mexico to force Vietnamese exporters to pay a minimum compensation tax of 135 percent on the footwear already exported to the Mexican market.

In early April, the European Union (EU) imposed anti-dumping duty of 4.2 percent on Vietnamese leather-upper shoes. The provisional duties will gradually rise to 16.8 percent every six months. Vietnam has earned nearly 1.1 billion dollars from exporting footwear to the world market in the first four months of this year,a year-on-year rise of 21.4 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source:Xinhua