(HANOI) - Vietnam on Tuesday criticised the European Union's continued anti-dumping tariffs on some shoes, saying they would hit 500,000 workers in the Southeast Asian country's footwear industry.

The European Commission has effectively continued two-year-old levies of 10 percent on leather-capped shoes from Vietnam, and 16.5 percent for such shoes from China, which had been due to expire Tuesday.

The tariffs stay in place while the EC reviews whether the shoes are below-cost imports, aided by unfair state subsidies, that hurt European shoe makers concentrated in Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Vietnam's Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien said the decisions had an "adverse impact" on Vietnamese shoemakers and European importers and customers, speaking with the state-run Vietnam News Agency.

"Vietnam is disappointed with the decision," he was quoted as saying.

Bien urged a "fair and swift" review to "help enterprises from both sides to stabilise their production and business and give EU customers the chance to buy Vietnam-made leather-capped shoes at reasonable prices."

The Vietnamese footwear industry has suffered a sharp revenue drop from exports to the EU market over the past two years, he said.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.