The European Commission has decided that the anti-dumping duty on Vietnamese leather-upper shoes exported to the European Union (EU), which has been 4.2 percent since March 23, is to double from June 2, local media reported Monday.

Under the decision, the provisional anti-dumping duties are to be phased in over six months, beginning at 4.2 percent, and finally reaching 16.8 percent, which will make Vietnamese shoe enterprises face more and more difficulties, the newspaper Youth said.

Due to the anti-dumping case, shoes makers in Vietnam have had to shrink their production, which puts 500,000 direct workers in the local shoe industry, and a large number of employees in related industries in the danger of losing jobs.

Average monthly incomes of the workers have already dropped to 1 million Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly 62.9 U.S. dollars) from previous 1.2-1.3 million VND (nearly 75.5-81.8 dollars), the newspaper quoted a recent research conducted by the non- governmental organization Action Aid Vietnam in coordination with the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association.

"Main victims of the case are female employees in the leather shoes industry and their children, since over 80 percent of the industry's workforce are women, most of whom are poor workers from agricultural areas," said the research.

The research pointed out that most of Vietnamese leather shoes are produced under outsourcing contracts signed between footwear makers in Vietnam and their foreign partners.

Vietnam exported 265 million pairs of shoes of different kinds to the EU last year. Some 80 millions pairs will be affected by new tariffs, according to a recent press release by the EC to Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua