| Enterprises must proactively avoid trade defense measures. Export enterprises have paid more attention to trade defense measures. |
Strengthening protection of domestic production
After Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and participated in multilateral and bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), in addition to having many advantages when we have the opportunity to access the export market, we also have to open the door to member countries by deeply cutting import taxes. That leads to many Vietnamese industries having to face fierce competition from imported goods. This is an inevitable consequence of international economic integration.
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| Timely trade defense of sugar products has contributed to protecting the interests of hundreds of thousands of sugarcane farming households across the country. Photo: VNA |
According to the Department of Trade Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade, the implementation of tariff reductions as committed in FTAs has brought the special preferential import tax rate to very low, many tax lines at 0%; the complicated regional and global trade situation, trade conflicts between some countries have led to the trend of trade protection in many countries and the high cost of many input goods, transportation costs... have caused many manufacturing industries to suffer losses due to imported goods, so they have proposed applying trade defense measures to imported goods.
Trade defense measures play an important role in ensuring that the economy can integrate effectively and minimize negative impacts on industries and businesses. These are measures permitted by the WTO and have been regularly and widely applied by countries around the world, especially large economies, in international trade.
In that context, speaking with the Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. Chu Thang Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade said that Vietnam's trade defense work in recent times has been promoted in terms of scope, scale, level and achieved positive results, contributing to improving the effectiveness of the international economic integration process, especially participating in new generation Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).
Up to now, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has initiated investigations into 27 trade defense cases involving imported goods. Of these, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued decisions to apply trade defense measures to 22 cases.
The investigated items are quite diverse, including: Basic metal products (aluminum, steel, welding materials), chemicals and plastics (sorbitol, filament fibers, BOPP films), construction materials (MDF wood panels, float glass), basic consumer goods (MSG, cane sugar, HFCS liquid sugar), including many products that have a close relationship and are especially important to the lives of farmers (sugar products, MSG (related to sugarcane), sorbitol (related to cassava).
In addition, in 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade continued to review and appraise a number of dossiers requesting investigation into the application of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on a number of new products and no new investigations arose during the year. However, in 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade completed the investigation of 6 cases (of which 5 cases the Ministry of Industry and Trade decided to apply trade defense measures on imported goods) and reviewed 7 trade defense measures in effect to consider adjusting the level, scope and duration of application of the measures in accordance with the provisions of law.
Re-establish a fair competitive environment
In fact, according to the assessment of the Trade Defense Department, the trade defense measures applied to imported goods are currently protecting domestic production sectors that account for about 9.5% of Vietnam's GDP (estimated according to GDP in 2022) and the jobs of millions of workers in domestic production sectors. Especially in sensitive sectors such as agriculture, timely trade defense measures on sugar products have contributed to protecting the interests of hundreds of thousands of sugarcane farming households across the country.
Mr. Chu Thang Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense commented that thanks to the application of reasonable trade defense measures, in accordance with international commitments, domestic manufacturing industries are protected from unfair competition from imported goods, thereby creating conditions for domestic enterprises to develop, creating more jobs and added value for the economy.
"The investigation and application of trade defense measures have continued to be promoted, contributing to protecting and re-establishing a fair competitive environment for domestic manufacturing industries in the context of many imported goods showing signs of being dumped or subsidized, causing serious damage to a number of domestic manufacturing industries," Mr. Trung stated.
In addition, Mr. Chu Thang Trung said that the applied trade defense measures also contributed to increasing revenue for the state budget. According to statistics, the applied trade defense measures contributed thousands of billions of VND in tax revenue to the state budget. From a consumer perspective, long-term trade defense measures help the economy not to be completely dependent on imports, bringing stability and better resilience to external impacts and shocks.
In particular, in many cases, applying trade defense also helps increase the ability to take advantage of commitments in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), while reducing the risk of Vietnam being investigated by foreign countries for evading trade defense measures because we have been proactive and protected domestic raw material sources.
In the coming time, with the process of deep integration of the economy, especially in the context of promoting the implementation of commitments of FTAs, Mr. Chu Thang Trung said that the Trade Defense Department will continue to conduct trade defense investigations on imported goods in a fair, public and transparent manner.
" The Trade Defense Department will collect information and listen to opinions from all parties, not only the domestic manufacturing industry but also related parties affected by trade defense measures to make recommendations and proposals to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the fair application of trade defense measures in accordance with the provisions of law and international commitments, " Mr. Trung emphasized.
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