Countries will tend to apply trade defense measures more and more, along with the complexity and scale of the cases.
The world situation continues to have many rapid and unpredictable fluctuations, significantly affecting domestic production and business activities. Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan - Director of the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade) - shared with the Industry and Trade Newspaper about the work of protecting Vietnamese goods in the global supply chain on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2025.
Barriers keep growing
How have Vietnamese goods faced challenges from the recent "storm" of protectionism in the export market, sir?
Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : In 2024, the number of trade defense investigations against Vietnamese exports increased significantly with a total of 28 cases. The United States alone accounted for nearly 50% of the total number of cases initiated. Trade defense investigations not only increased in number but also became more complicated as many countries investigated unprecedented new contents. For example, double investigations of the same product; the scope of investigated products is increasingly diverse, from high-value to low-value products.
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| Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan - Director of Trade Defense Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) |
In fact, the increasing application of trade defense measures by markets poses many challenges for Vietnam's export products, due to the impacts of these measures. Specifically, Vietnamese enterprises face increased costs when having to devote more resources to participating in and handling trade defense investigations and meeting the requirements of foreign investigation agencies; the competitiveness of exporting enterprises is reduced when taxed, importers will be more hesitant to buy goods from Vietnamese enterprises compared to countries that are not subject to tax.
Another difficulty is that we still have to face being considered a non-market economy by some countries, causing foreign investigation agencies to often use foreign surrogate values to calculate dumping and subsidy margins for Vietnamese enterprises. This often pushes up anti-dumping and subsidy tariffs, putting enterprises at a disadvantage compared to countries that are not considered non-market economies.
Defend early, from afar
Facing a lot of pressure from investigations, however, with the motto "prevent early, from afar", early warning work has contributed to protecting export goods in the global supply chain. What do you think about this issue?
Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : Implementing the policy of "early prevention, from afar", the Trade Defense Department has established and operated an early warning system to monitor, collect and analyze data on Vietnamese export products at risk of being investigated by foreign countries and applying trade defense measures.
The Trade Defense Department also uses information sent from a system of more than 60 trade offices in major export markets related to risks, possibilities of trade defense investigations, and conflicts between our export goods and goods in the host market.
Currently, the Department is monitoring the fluctuations of more than 300 Vietnamese export products to markets with high frequency of trade defense investigations. In addition, the Department is also promoting the dissemination of regulations on origin and trade defense regulations to businesses to prevent acts of inaccurate information declaration and abetting acts of origin fraud and illegal transshipment.
Along with strengthening early warning, as the focal agency for management and work in trade defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has deployed a series of other drastic measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese enterprises. Thanks to that, it has supported exporting enterprises to handle and terminate nearly 50% of trade defense cases initiated by foreign countries, and many cases in 2024 achieved positive results.
New challenge
Trade defense is a tool allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for members to use to ensure fair competition. Can you name some trends in trade defense investigations in 2025?
Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : The world situation continues to have many rapid and unpredictable fluctuations, which will create a new context for global trade defense. Therefore, countries will tend to apply more and more trade defense measures, along with that, the complexity and scale of the cases will also increase.
And some investigation trends can be mentioned as: Countries apply new legal regulations to increase applicable tax rates, through the use of regulations on non-market economies, special market situations; stricter requirements and demands on procedures when participating in trade defense cases...
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| The Trade Defense Department will continue to accompany Vietnamese enterprises in trade defense investigations. Photo: THS |
In that context, the Trade Defense Department will continue to accompany Vietnamese enterprises in trade defense investigations to ensure the highest benefits for the Vietnamese business community. At the same time, the Department will continue to research, review and perfect Vietnam's trade defense laws to ensure they meet practical requirements, are consistent, appropriate and consistent with international commitments.
Promoting recognition of Vietnam as a market economy
Promoting the recognition of Vietnam's market economy is expected to contribute to limiting trade remedies against Vietnam's exports. What do you think about this work in 2025?
Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : Promoting a country to recognize Vietnam as a market economy does not in essence deprive domestic producers in the importing country of the right to request the investigating agency to initiate an investigation to apply trade defense measures. However, promoting a country to recognize Vietnam as a market economy will help Vietnamese exporting enterprises to be treated more equally in anti-dumping/anti-subsidy investigations when the dumping/subsidy margin is calculated based on the enterprise's own production costs instead of using the production costs of another country as a "surrogate value". This can result in lower anti-dumping/anti-subsidy tax rates and more closely reflect the actual production and business situation of Vietnamese enterprises.
Accordingly, the Trade Defense Department will continue to strengthen research, consultation, and propose cooperation options and methods to promote countries to consider recognizing Vietnam as a market economy. Specifically, implementing the Prime Minister's direction, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is developing a plan to study promoting a number of countries to recognize Vietnam as a market economy in trade defense cases in the period of 2024-2030, focusing on countries with domestic laws regulating market economies or variations of market economies, and are also important trading partners of Vietnam.
Thank you!
Source: https://congthuong.vn/phong-ve-thuong-mai-bien-nguy-thanh-co-truoc-bao-thuong-truong-371557-371557.html
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