Sports shoe giants protest EU's Vietnam duty hike

BRUSSELS, April 10 (Reuters) - Leading sports shoe makers, such as Adidas (ADSG.DE) and Nike (NKE.N), urged the European Union on Thursday not to remove Vietnam's shoe industry from a programme that helps developing countries export to the bloc.

The EU plans to drop the Vietnamese shoe sector -- one of the country's biggest export industries -- from its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme after finding the sector was sufficiently competitive on its own.

"Removing GSP preferences for footwear would deal a blow to one of Vietnam's key industries and undermine the country's position as a competitive source of supply," said Horst Widmann, president of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI), in a statement.

The change would mean shoe exports from Vietnam would face higher EU tariffs, a new blow to the Southeast Asian country after the EU imposed anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from Vietnam and China in 2006.

FESI said the Commission's proposal was based on the "fundamentally flawed reasoning" that a fall in Vietnam's shoe exports to the EU meant it was less dependent on that sector when the fall was really due to the EU's anti-dumping duties.

"The EU is punishing Vietnam twice," Widmann said. "This is absurd and clearly irresponsible given the country's vulnerable position," Widmann said.

A European Commission official said the decision was taken after Vietnam broadened the range of goods it exports to the EU.

"We welcome the fact that Vietnam has diversified its exports to the EU," the official said, asking not to be named.

"This is a success story and that is why Vietnam will graduate out of GSP in the footwear sector while still benefiting from GSP in other areas."

Some EU countries have long pushed Brussels to do more to protect their own shoe industries, led by Italy, which is home to some of the world's most famous shoemakers and led the campaign for anti-dumping duties in 2006. (Reporting by William Schomberg)