Czech President Vaclav Klaus does not favor the plan of European Union (EU) to levy 10 percent custom duty on leather footwear imports from China and Vietnam. He stated this during his visit to Ho Chi Minh City.
EU is slated to take the decision in a couple of days and Czech president said that ten percent tax would increase the prices alarmingly which will leave Vietnamese producers and exporters as losers.
Countries like Italy with strong footwear industry had alleged that Vietnam and China were dumping footwear in EU markets which led to an enquiry by EU.
Meanwhile, shoe makers from Czech Republic say that proposed custom duty is nominal and would not make any impact on the cheap import from Asia. Contrary to this, Northern European countries with booming retail sector have strongly opposed duties.
Imports from Vietnam to Czech Republic have surged with figures of 8.6 billion in 2005 compared to 7.2 billion in 2004.
Import of Chinese leather shoes to EU has reached 950 million pairs, a jump of 320 percent during last year while Vietnam exported 120 million pairs of shoes which is an increase of 700 percent in the same period.
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