“America has increased anti-dumping tariffs for Vietnam’s catfish”, “Vietnam’s shrimps are imposed anti-dumping duties of 1.25 percent” are headlines appearing many times on mass media in Vietnam.However, measures for anti-dumping, which many countries have used to protect their domestic industries, are weakly adopted in Vietnam.
Workshop on “Anti dumping in Vietnam – Awake a neglected measure”, held recently by the WTO Centre of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in Hanoi, helps businesses, associations and related entities of Vietnam to learn more about processes and procedures of the investigation of the trade remedies based on relevant laws of Vietnam, rights and interests of the parties involved in
anti-dumping cases and share information and experience about the cases that have been going on.
Too few lawsuits in Vietnam
According to Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the WTO Centre of VCCI, it seems that imported goods in Vietnam are being dumped and a mass of goods imported into Vietnam was affecting every domestic goods, raising concerns in the business community.
According to statistics, up to now, Vietnam has only conducted three investigations, of which two of them are related to trade remedies and one related to anti-dumping for imports. Specifically, on May 5, 2009, Vietnam Glass and Ceramic Corporation (Viglacera) filed a petition to Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to require an investigation and an application of safeguard measures for float glass imports. On February 23, 2010, VCA decided to terminate the investigation and not to impose safeguard measures on these imports.
On November 30, 2012, Vietnam Vegetable Oils Industry Corporation (Vocarimex) filed a petition to VCA to request safeguard measures for soybean oil and palm oil products imported to Vietnam. On May 4, 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Trade decided to impose temporary import duty of 5 percent for soybean oil and palm oil imported from May 7, 2013 and not exceeding 200 days.
Most recently, on July 2, 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No. 4460 on the investigation and application of anti-dumping measures to cold laminated stainless steel products imported from China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan (China). The investigation stems from the application of Posco VST Company and Hoa Binh Inox Company. Final conclusions will be published within 12 months from the starting date of the investigation.
Awaking neglected measures
Meanwhile, foreign goods are dumped into Vietnam to compete unfairly with Vietnamese products, causing losses to many industries of Vietnam. Many of these products, especially chemicals, plastics, textiles, metals, electronics, which Vietnam is importing, have been sued for anti-dumping in many countries. So there is no way except that Vietnamese businesses must use trade remedies to protect themselves from the losses causing failures of their businesses. This is not an emerging issue because Vietnam’ Anti-Dumping Law has been enacted for nearly 10 years since 2004 but it has not been used effectively as expected.
According to Ms Dinh Thi My Loan, Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of Trade Remedies Council (TRC), Vietnam has about 10 items on the risk of unfair competition and also, such these items are mostly imported to Vietnam, they are electrical, electronics, machinery, oil, fuel, iron, steel, plastics and plastic-made products, garments and accessories, knit, crocheted, flowers, fruits, vehicles, and cotton. Many of exporting countries of top 10 items are Vietnam’s neighbouring countries so there is no guarantee that these countries do not export dumping goods or unfair competitive goods to Vietnam.
“It is important to ensure that trade remedies s are not misused to restrict competition in the market. To identify the dumping cases, the investigators needs to conduct a thorough and accurate investigation with full involvement of stakeholders and consider the gains and losses of each sector before final decision for lawsuits”, said Ms Loan.
According to Loan, it is the time that Vietnamese businesses actively use trade remedies to protect themselves and more importantly, they should unite to prepare information, materials and good arguments to win the lawsuits.
There are many tools to protect businesses such as increased import taxes, and stricter requirements for the industrial goods to prevent imports from harsh competition with domestic goods. Some of measures restricted to high technology such as quarantine measures for fresh food categories so they have not proved effectiveness to protect Vietnamese goods against from imports. To use the measure effectively, Vietnamese businesses have to evaluate the gains and losses affecting their businesses.
Finally, before filing the petition, the businesses should consider some of factors such as human resources, finance, time and efficiency compared to the efforts. The time to file the petition to VCCI will last from 15 to 30 days and even more but businesses should also be noted that Vietnam’s good are exported to the United States at a very short time.
Mr Le Sy Giang, Deputy Head of Trade Remedies Department, Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA), Ministry of Industry and Trade
When businesses are looking for appropriate protection instruments, they should collect data on import duties, administrative measures, technical barriers (for industrial goods) and trade remedies including anti-dumping and safeguard measures. To search for the application of anti-dumping investigations, businesses can get the application form available or downloaded from the website of VCA.
However, to sue the anti-dumping case successfully, the businesses must determine their losses such as losses of sales volume, revenues or inventory backlog.
Attorney Nguyen Hai, Brown JSM Law Firm
Currently, the volumes of imports in Vietnam are increasing over the years, of which some imported goods have significantly increased, causing stiff competition to many local firms. However, with fears of litigation aversion, costly fees for nothing and incomplete legal system, Vietnamese businesses do not want to file petition for their losses from the anti-dumping imports. Thus, Vietnam has been lagged behind other Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and the Philippines that have experienced anti-dumping lawsuits for many years.
Mr Dam Quang Hung, Deputy General Director of Son Ha International JSC
It is necessary to review the anti-dumping lawsuits of POSCO VST Company and Hoa Binh Inox Company against cold laminated stainless steel products imported from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan (China) because the application of anti-dumping measures on these products in this case will lead to many adverse consequences affecting stainless steel industry of Vietnam.
The producers of stainless steel products will find difficulties in accessing raw material with competitive price and standardized quality and techniques because the price of raw materials will be pushed up. Previously, the Ministry of Finance adjusted the tax rate of imports of cold laminated stainless steel from 0 percent to 5 percent and now at 10 percent, while Ministry of Trade and Industry automatically applied import quota, leading to difficulties for the importers in terms of product price and administrative procedures in the process of importing raw materials. Besides, the price of the ultimate products has increased due to rising price of raw material, which affects selling price, causes rising inflation and declining export value and in particular, leads to oligopolistic phenomenon in the production of cold laminated stainless steel products because these products have not been produced in Vietnam.
To help businesses, associations and other relevant units of Vietnam should learn more about the process and procedures for the investigations of trade remedies based on relevant laws of Vietnam and rights and interests of stakeholders in the anti-dumping lawsuits and investigations.
Quynh Chi
Đăng ký: VietNam News