Steel enterprises have been proactive in dealing with trade defense lawsuits.

From confusion, Vietnamese steel enterprises have now become more familiar and proactive in dealing with trade defense lawsuits.

Steel companies are familiar with the process of a lawsuit.

Steel is a fundamental industry, an input material for the country's important economic sectors such as mechanical engineering and supporting industries. According to the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), from an economic sector that relied mainly on imported steel, up to now, the Vietnamese steel industry has risen to master science and technology, master the steel industry with a total capacity of 28 million tons of crude steel/year, ranking 12th in the world in terms of crude steel output (according to the ranking of the World Steel Association - WSA), becoming one of the major steel product exporting countries in the region and globally.

However, speaking at the Conference on the Summary of Work in 2024 and Plan for 2025 of the Trade Defense Department on January 6, Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai - General Secretary of the Vietnam Steel Association - said that steel is a product that is often involved in trade defense cases. Accordingly, Vietnam's steel industry has also faced trade defense lawsuits early on, the earliest of which was in 2004 when the European Commission (EC) initiated an anti-dumping lawsuit against Vietnamese steel pipes.

Since then, according to statistics from the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), foreign markets have filed trade defense lawsuits against Vietnam's exported steel in a total of 81 cases. " These lawsuits mostly come from Vietnam's main steel export markets such as the United States, the EU, and some countries in the ASEAN region. In particular, recently, Mexico and the United States have emerged as markets that have initiated many trade defense investigations due to the rapid increase in Vietnam's steel export turnover to these markets, " said Mr. Thai.

The steel industry's proactiveness in trade defense has gradually improved significantly. Photo: VNA

Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai shared that in 2004, the concept of "trade defense" seemed to be very new to Vietnamese enterprises, enterprises in the steel industry were still very confused and did not have much experience in dealing with these issues. "There were some cases where the anti-dumping tax applied to Vietnamese enterprises was up to hundreds of percent" - Mr. Thai stated.

For example, according to Mr. Thai, in 2026, the Thai Ministry of Commerce imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from 2.38 - 310.74% on stainless steel welded pipes from China, South Korea, Taiwan (China) and Vietnam for 5 years. However, " after a period of facing many trade defense investigations, from practical lessons learned, businesses have basically become familiar with the process of a lawsuit " - Mr. Thai assessed.

Until recently, despite the trend of global trade development, steel enterprises still had to face more investigations. However, Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai said that thanks to gradually catching up with the requirements of the investigation agencies of other countries, along with careful preparation within the enterprise and the help of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, especially the Department of Trade Defense, many cases have achieved remarkable results.

Some specific examples include: in 2017, Australia concluded that there was no dumping behavior by Vietnam on coiled steel wire products. In 2019, Indonesia announced that it would stop imposing anti-dumping duties on galvanized steel products after 2 years of investigation; In 2020, Australia ended its anti-dumping/anti-subsidy investigation on precision steel pipes.

From the appeal cases, Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai said that steel enterprises have drawn some experiences to be proactive in responding to the cases. Such as proactively seeking information related to the legal regulations of the investigating countries, thereby understanding the process of each anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, anti-tax evasion or self-defense investigation case. On the other hand, steel enterprises have built a management system, arranged resources, standardized the information system to help retrieve information for trade defense cases quickly and accurately, ensuring compliance with the regulations on response time set by the Investigation Agency.

Moreover, Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai noted that the steel industry's proactiveness in trade defense has gradually improved significantly. Currently, businesses are also proactively reviewing their export plans regularly to enjoy incentives from trade agreements while avoiding trade defense investigations. " Fortunately for steel businesses, we always receive enthusiastic support, assistance, guidance and advice from agencies, ministries and branches such as the Department of Trade Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade " - Mr. Thai added.

Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai - General Secretary of Vietnam Steel Association. Photo: Can Dung

Proactively detect unfair commercial practices

In particular, according to Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai, after initially playing a passive role as defendants in trade defense cases, Vietnamese steel enterprises have also proactively detected unfair trade practices by exporting enterprises in Vietnam's domestic market to build a dossier and request the Ministry of Industry and Trade to initiate an investigation.

The proactive and active research, study and request for support from the authorities of steel enterprises have led to many positive results. Of which, there have been 12 trade defense cases initiated by Vietnam related to steel products and all of these cases have led to the application of trade defense measures on imported goods.

In the coming time, according to Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai, the Vietnam Steel Association recommends that the Ministry of Industry and Trade and State agencies: Continue working with partners who have signed FTAs ​​but are still skeptical about the existence of a "special market" or have not recognized Vietnam's market economy (like the United States) so that partners recognize that Vietnam has a market economy and does not have a special market to be fairer and more proactive for businesses when working with agencies investigating trade defense cases.

At the same time, continue to chair dialogue channels between businesses, industry associations and relevant parties to enhance understanding and cooperation, in order to minimize trade defense lawsuits and investigations that waste resources of partners (including the initiating country and the responding country) within the framework of signed FTAs. Increase resources to continue to flexibly and effectively use trade defense tools (for imported goods) and effectively respond to trade defense cases (for exported goods) to protect domestic production and ensure jobs for workers.

“ The Vietnam Steel Association hopes to continue to receive effective support and assistance from State agencies, especially the Trade Defense Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, to work with Vietnamese enterprises to continue to develop in the domestic market and make steady progress in the global arena, ” Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai suggested.

Accordingly, Vietnam's steel industry has also faced trade defense lawsuits, the earliest of which was in 2004 when the European Commission (EC) initiated an anti-dumping lawsuit against Vietnamese steel pipes.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/doanh-nghiep-thep-da-chu-dong-truoc-kien-phong-ve-thuong-mai-368316.html