In 2024, the Trade Defense Department deployed a series of measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese enterprises in the international market.
On the afternoon of January 6, 2025, the Trade Defense Department held a conference to review trade defense work in 2024 and deploy the plan for 2025. Deputy Minister Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan attended and gave instructions at the conference. Also attending the conference were representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; units under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and representatives of industry associations.
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Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan; Director of the Trade Defense Department Trinh Anh Tuan and Mr. Trinh Minh Anh - Chief of Office of the Inter-sectoral Steering Committee for International Economic Integration at the conference. Photo: Can Dung |
Continue to improve the legal system on trade defense
In 2024, in the context of strong de-globalization trends, protectionist policies will reappear in many countries in different forms. Developed countries are increasingly concerned with consumer safety, sustainable development, and climate change. From there, new standards and regulations related to supply chains, raw materials, labor, and the environment for imported products will be established; in particular, many markets will increase investigations and apply trade defense measures...
The Department of Trade Defense is an agency that performs the function of advising and assisting the Minister of Industry and Trade in state management and law enforcement on trade defense, including the fields of anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and self-defense; preventing evasion of trade defense measures. Reporting at the conference, Mr. Chu Thang Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense said that in 2024, trade defense work achieved a number of outstanding achievements, specifically:
In order to carry out the assigned tasks in the 2024 Work Program of the Government and the Prime Minister, the Trade Defense Department was assigned to preside over the drafting of a Government Decree detailing a number of articles of the Law on Foreign Trade Management on trade defense measures, replacing Decree No. 10/2018/ND-CP dated January 15, 2018, in order to complete the current trade defense legal system. The Department has completed the draft dossier in accordance with the correct procedures and in compliance with the provisions of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents; reported to the Ministry's leaders to submit to the Government earlier than the assigned deadline.
In addition, the Department of Trade Remedies has completed and reported to the Ministry's leaders the dossier submitted to the Prime Minister for approval of the Overall Project on requesting countries to recognize Vietnam as a market economy country in trade defense cases in the period of 2024-2030 in Decision No. 177/QD-TTg dated December 25, 2024. On December 30, 2024, the Department of Trade Remedies submitted and was signed by the Ministry's leaders to issue Decision No. 3649/QD-BCT on approving the Project "Building a database of domestic manufacturing industries to improve the capacity of trade defense investigation and monitoring the effectiveness of trade defense measures to protect domestic production in the context of international economic integration in the period of 2025-2030".
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| Conference to review trade defense work in 2024 and deploy plan for 2025. Photo: Can Dung |
At the same time, to facilitate businesses and related parties, the Trade Remedies Authority continues to implement 3 level 4 administrative procedures according to Decision No. 1573/QD-BCT dated June 15, 2021 of the Minister of Industry and Trade. At the same time, continue to effectively deploy the Online Database System in trade defense investigation cases (Trav Online) for imported goods.
Regarding promoting countries to recognize the market economy, up to now, 73 countries and territories have recognized Vietnam as a market economy. In 2024, Costa Rica recognized Vietnam as a market economy. According to the leader of the Trade Defense Department, over the past nearly 23 years, the Trade Defense Department has continuously promoted the work of requesting major trade partners of Vietnam such as the United States, the European Union, Türkiye, Brazil... to recognize Vietnam as a market economy.
Regarding the request for the United States to recognize Vietnam as a market economy, during the 270 days of participating in the process according to US law, the Department of Trade Remedies coordinated with the Government's consulting attorneys to provide more than 20,000 pages of information and documents to demonstrate Vietnam's strong progress on all six criteria set by the US Department of Commerce when considering recognizing a country as a market economy.
Although the conclusion issued by the US Department of Commerce continues to not recognize Vietnam as a country with a market economy, it has also recorded many positive changes in the Vietnamese economy in recent times.
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| Mr. Chu Thang Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade reported on trade defense work in 2024 and the task plan for 2025. Photo: Can Dung |
Respond effectively to trade defense investigations
In the context of many imported goods showing signs of dumping or being subsidized, causing serious damage to a number of domestic manufacturing industries, the work of initiating lawsuits, investigating, and applying trade defense measures continues to be strengthened and promoted, creating an environment of equal competition and legally protecting domestic manufacturing industries.
Mr. Chu Thang Trung said that in 2024, the Trade Defense Department will continue to investigate and review 10 cases initiated in 2023; initiate investigations of 6 new cases, initiate reviews of 3 end-of-term reviews; initiate 1 annual review, receive and process 7 new investigation and review requests. Of the 55 cases of investigation applying trade defense measures to imported goods into Vietnam, 31 trade defense measures have come into effect.
" These measures have contributed to ensuring a fair trade environment to prevent negative impacts of imported goods on domestic production and the employment of millions of workers, ensuring economic security and social security, increasing state budget revenue by about 1.5 trillion VND per year," Mr. Chu Thang Trung emphasized.
In addition, in 2024, the Trade Defense Department conducted 12 reviews of trade defense measures being applied in accordance with regulations to ensure that the measures were applied to the right subjects, at the right level and under the right conditions. Among the reviews, there were 2 reviews of new exporters, 4 annual reviews and 06 end-of-term reviews.
In addition, the Trade Defense Department has submitted to the Ministry's leaders a report assessing the overall impact of trade defense measures on the steel and sugar industries and made recommendations; coordinated with associations and industries to closely monitor the import situation of key goods to ensure the healthy development of the domestic market, and guided domestic manufacturing enterprises to submit dossiers requesting investigation and application of trade defense measures when there are signs of rapidly increasing imported goods causing damage to the domestic manufacturing industry in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law and the WTO.
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| Representatives of industry associations attending the conference. Photo: Can Dung |
On the other hand, in 2024, Vietnamese export goods will face 32 newly initiated foreign trade defense cases arising from 12 markets (including 1 market that is investigating Vietnam for the first time, South Africa). This number is nearly double compared to 2023 (15 cases). The United States is still the country with the most investigations with 11 cases (accounting for about 1/3 of the cases in 2024).
In addition to newly arising cases, the Trade Defense Department also continues to support businesses in handling a number of trade defense cases initiated since 2023 that have not yet completed investigations and cases of reviewing the application of trade defense measures (currently there are still more than 100 measures in effect).
In addition to newly initiated cases, the Vietnamese Government and enterprises continue to have to deal with more than 100 cases from previous years that are under investigation/review for application of measures. For example, there are measures that have been applied for more than 20 years, such as the US anti-dumping tax order on pangasius and warm-water shrimp, which are still reviewed annually.
According to the Trade Defense Department, investigations have not only increased in number (nearly double that of 2023), but have also become more complex as many countries investigate unprecedented new content such as: The United States investigates cross-border subsidies on solar panels and capsule shells; Canada conducts its first anti-circumvention investigation with a country (Vietnam)... Along with that, the investigated products are increasingly diverse, from products with large export turnover such as solar panels (4.2 billion USD), shrimp (800 million USD), anti-corrosion steel (242 million USD) to items with lower export turnover such as fiber molded trays (50 million USD), paper plates (9 million USD)...
In that context, the Trade Defense Department has implemented a series of measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese enterprises in the international market. "The fact that exporting enterprises are not subject to trade defense taxes or are subject to taxes at a lower/lower rate than those of the countries under investigation has contributed to maintaining and expanding export markets, " the Trade Defense Department emphasized.
| Based on the results achieved in 2024, at the conference, Deputy Director of the Trade Defense Department Chu Thang Trung also clearly stated the tasks for 2025, in which the Trade Defense Department will continue to promote the implementation of professional tasks according to the functions and tasks assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. |
Source: https://congthuong.vn/trien-khai-hang-loat-bien-phap-bao-ve-loi-ich-cua-doanh-nghiep-368131.html
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