The agency said the Abicalcados officially submitted the anti-dumping petition to the Brazilian Trade Protection Agency in late October.

Vietnamese shoes with leather caps, footwear made of rubber latex and with rubber and leather soles, coded from 6405 to 6420 (except for 6402.12.00, 6402.20.00, 6403.12.00 and 6403.20.20), would be investigated for dumping, said the agency.

The Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association said the volume of footwear exported to Brazil was relatively small.

Vietnam’s footwear export revenue to Brazil was almost US$40 million in the January-November period this year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Vietnamese leather exporters currently still face anti-dumping tariffs of 10 percent from the European Commission, which said the products had been sold at unfair prices since 2006. The tariffs will be imposed until October next year, pending an EC review to decide whether to extend the tariffs.

Footwear, which is Vietnam’s third largest export staple, was estimated to earn the country US$4.5 billion each year.

Vietnam has planned to rake in more than US$6 billion from footwear exports in 2009, according to the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association.

The EU is Vietnam’s largest market, buying 54 percent of its footwear exports, followed by the US and Japan.