How is the trend of trade defense investigation on Vietnamese goods taking place?

The investigation market is expanding.

The Department of Trade Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the number of trade defense cases against Vietnam's export goods is increasing rapidly. Specifically, in the period 2001-2011, there were 50 cases, in the period 2012-2022, there were 172 cases (an increase of nearly 3.5 times). Up to now, the total number of cases of investigation and application of trade defense measures related to Vietnam's export goods initiated by countries is 234 cases. In the first 9 months of 2023 alone, countries initiated 7 trade defense cases against Vietnam's export goods.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has increased early warnings of the risk of trade defense investigations so that businesses can proactively develop a response plan. Photo: Hoang Ha

Highlighting the trend of trade defense investigations against Vietnam, Ms. Nguyen Hang Nga - Deputy Head of the Foreign Trade Defense Handling Department, Department of Trade Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in cases, investigations of evasion of trade defense measures against Vietnam tend to increase, especially the United States. In 2022 alone, the United States initiated 11/35 evasion investigations against Vietnam (nearly 1/3 of the total number of foreign tax evasion investigations against Vietnam to date).

In addition, the investigation market is increasingly expanding. Accordingly, most of the major traditional export markets have initiated trade defense investigations against Vietnam. The number of cases conducted by ASEAN countries has also increased rapidly or Mexico has also initiated investigations due to the implementation of FTAs, leading to a sharp increase in our exports, competing with the domestic production industry of the importing country.

The scope of products under investigation is increasingly diverse. “Currently, trade defense investigations are not limited to products with large export turnover such as shrimp, pangasius, steel, wood, solar panels, etc., but have expanded to products with medium and small export value and volume such as lawn mowers, honey, cigarette paper, staplers, etc., ” Ms. Nga informed.

In particular, the trend of investigation is becoming more and more stringent. Specifically, investigation cases have higher requirements for the Government and investigated enterprises such as response deadlines, requests for additional information, difficulty in requesting extensions, and changes in precedents in determining origin. At the same time, trade defense tariffs may be pushed up due to market economy issues. Because some countries such as the United States have not recognized Vietnam as a market economy, they use the costs of a third country to calculate normal value in anti-dumping cases, update the list of alternative countries, the bill adds regulations not to select weak implementing countries as alternative countries, etc.

Warning activities of the Ministry of Industry and Trade

In response to the trend of trade defense against Vietnam, Ms. Nguyen Hang Nga said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, specifically the Department of Trade Defense, regularly warns early about the risk of trade defense investigations so that businesses can proactively develop a response plan. Accordingly, the Department of Trade Defense has been monitoring export fluctuations of nearly 40 products and periodically issues a warning list of about 10 products (products that have been investigated include plywood, foam mattresses, car tires, copper pipes, honey, anti-corrosion steel, ceramic tiles, wooden cabinets, solar panels, staples, etc.)

At the same time, the Trade Defense Department regularly exchanges with associations and businesses to provide information, update the developments of the case and agree on response plans. Thanks to that, businesses and associations can promptly grasp the developments of the case, share information and coordinate to develop a common response plan. In addition, the Trade Defense Department strengthens legal advice, investigation procedures, regulations/practices of the initiating country and makes specific recommendations and handling directions. " The Trade Defense Department has provided early information to help businesses understand the principles, investigation procedures, tasks to be performed and possible scenarios so that businesses can develop response strategies, " said Ms. Nga.

Along with that, the Trade Defense Department has promoted exchanges and consultations to give opinions on legal and practical aspects with foreign investigation agencies, requesting compliance with regulations. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has repeatedly sent letters/submissions/discussion papers stating opinions and arguments on the investigation case. In particular, it considers initiating lawsuits against trade defense measures of foreign investigation agencies if there are signs of violations of regulations. Such as conducting dispute settlement cases at the WTO to protect the interests of shrimp and tra - basa fish enterprises... Vietnam when the United States applied anti-dumping measures that were inconsistent with WTO regulations and achieved positive results.

Based on the warning list, the competent authorities of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Public Security, and the People's Committees of provinces and cities coordinate to strengthen inspection, supervision, and verification of the issuance of certificates of origin, declaration of origin during customs clearance, foreign investment registration, etc. Associations and enterprises related to the warned products can proactively develop production and export strategies, prepare resources, and develop response plans in case of incidents. This helps Vietnamese enterprises avoid being subject to trade defense taxes or enjoy low tax rates, contributing to maintaining export growth.

According to Ms. Nguyen Hang Nga, the positive results achieved are that in many cases of anti-dumping investigations by the United States, most enterprises with large export proportions were not subject to tax (tra - basa fish, shrimp, tires). The United States concluded that Vietnam did not subsidize and did not undervalue its currency with tires during the most recent review period; did not evade trade defense measures for round stainless steel wire and some steel pipe products; solar panels exported to the United States were temporarily exempted from trade defense tax.

In particular, most of the anti-subsidy investigations conducted by Canada concluded that Vietnamese enterprises did not receive subsidies or received subsidies at an insignificant level. Or Australia has ended the tax order/many anti-dumping/anti-subsidy investigations (precision steel pipes, color-coated steel belts, copper pipes, pressed aluminum, ammonium nitrate, etc.). India, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. have also successively ended anti-dumping investigations on MDF boards, PET plastic, cold-rolled steel, etc. The United States reduced the anti-dumping tax for honey enterprises from 410.93% - 413.99% (preliminary) to nearly 7 times to 58.74% - 61.27% (official). The official anti-dumping tax rate applied by Mexico on galvanized steel is lower than the preliminary rate...

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