Workers make shoes for export at a workshop of the footwear company in Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 1, 2022.- Xinhua
HO CHI MINH CITY: Vietnam’s footwear industry is utilising the United Kingdom–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) to increase exports, according to the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso).
Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, deputy chairwoman and general secretary of Lefaso, said that in the first eight months of the year, Vietnam’s exports of footwear to the United Kingdom grew by 25% and accounted for 8% of total exports to the European Union (EU).
Xuan also said that in the first nine months, footwear exports grew by 17% year-on-year, thanks to the increase in exports across many markets such as the United States, the EU and China.
Before leaving the EU bloc, the United Kingdom was Vietnam’s main export market for leather and footwear products.
Then, during the period from 2019 to 2020, exports saw a light dip, but since then they have picked up remarkably.
Even during the challenging Covid-19 period, exports of footwear to the United Kingdom still saw growth, and in 2023, when exports of the product to most countries dropped (especially the EU), export turnover to the UK still grew, she said.
Thanks to the UKVFTA, which came into effect in 2021, many Vietnamese products benefit from favourable tariffs such as footwear, textiles and garments and agricultural produce, with up to 99.2% of all import taxes to the UK to be eliminated in the first six years of the agreement. — Viet Nam News/ANN
