As of February 2010, the point of time when Vietnam lodged its claims against the US to the WTO relating to the shrimp case, the shrimp producing businesses of Vietnam had experienced 7 years being under the burden of the US anti-dumping tax. This US action has caused big losses to Vietnam’s shrimp producers. The reason why after 7 years when Vietnam could start to bring an action against the US DOC is that they thought it was so difficult to win the case.


In face of this situation, VASEP held a meeting, calling on the consensus among its members in a bid to file a lawsuit against DOC to the WTO. On the other hand, so doing just for fear that Vietnam will lose its competitive advantage to other regional shrimp exporters such as India and Thailand which had once sued the US with success.

The decision to start the lawsuit was made on February 1, 2010. According to Mr Trương Đình Hòe, VASEP’s General Secretary, Vietnam’s claims to the WTO were aimed at fighting hard against DOC’s zeroing method used in its anti-dumping action. This method had also been opposed strongly by many countries, because it could create a fake anti-dumping margin. Most of these countries had been successful. So this is a base for Vietnam to believe that it will win in the end.

Initial success

According to the ruling of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of WTO, the US had gone against the provisions of the WTO in applying the zeroing method. Dr. Prof. Nguyễn Vân Nam said the US was one of the main drafters of the WTO law. However, through this law suit, Vietnam at least could get to know to some extent the WTO’s law and the WTO’s recent ruling has encouraged Vietnam to go on with its lawsuit. This is the first time Vietnam would deem it necessary to use its right to file a law suit to the WTO.
In the perspective of a business, Mr Nguyễn Văn Kịch, General Director of Cafatex stock company (Hậu Giang province) said that the filing a lawsuit against the US was a normal thing and inevitable. This is not only the story of shrimps and fish, but also a start for many other issues, particularly when Vietnam has ever more integrated into the WTO./.