Trade Remedies Department: Balancing the protection of domestic production with the promotion of integration.

Immediately after the 14th National Congress of the Party, the Trade Defense Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) identified key tasks to concretize the Party's policies and ensure harmony between protecting domestic production and promoting integration and transforming the growth model.

Strengthening support and protecting the interests of businesses.

In implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Congress, the Trade Remedies Department has regularly carried out activities to support and protect Vietnamese manufacturing and exporting enterprises, contributing to enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese businesses in the international arena.

To date, the Trade Remedies Department has initiated investigations into a total of 62 cases and is currently applying 37 trade remedy measures against goods imported into Vietnam. The items under investigation are relatively diverse, including basic metals, chemicals and plastics, construction materials, and basic consumer goods.

Besides products from basic industries, the manufacturing sector has many products that are closely related to and particularly important to the lives of farmers, such as sugar and MSG (related to sugarcane), and sorbitol (related to cassava). Among these, the Trade Remedies Department has issued decisions to apply trade defense measures in 36 cases.

The Trade Remedies Department assesses that the application of trade defense measures in the past has brought practical benefits to the Vietnamese economy , specifically: protecting and facilitating the formation and development of several fundamental industries, construction industries, and consumer industries such as metallurgy, chemicals, building materials, and agricultural processing.

The revenue of businesses protected by trade defense measures over the past years is estimated at 600 trillion VND, employing over 56,000 direct workers and hundreds of thousands of indirect workers, ensuring economic security and social welfare in provinces and cities nationwide. At the same time, the amount of anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, safeguard duties, and anti-circumvention duties collected annually for the state budget is substantial, exceeding 2,500 billion VND.

Furthermore, thanks to the application of appropriate trade defense measures, consistent with international commitments, domestic industries are protected from unfair competition from imported goods, thereby creating favorable conditions for domestic businesses to develop, generate more jobs, and add value to the economy. From a consumer perspective, in the long term, trade defense measures help the economy avoid complete dependence on imports, bringing greater stability and resilience to external impacts and shocks.

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Conversely, according to the Trade Remedies Department, to date, Vietnamese exports have faced 300 trade defense investigations from 25 markets. In 2025 alone, there were 23 investigations from 12 markets targeting Vietnamese exports. The investigated goods are relatively diverse, ranging from high-value export items such as wooden cabinets, plywood, solar panels, shrimp, catfish, high-pressure washers, etc., to lower-value items such as foam mattresses, lawn mowers, cigarette packaging paper, EPS plastic pellets, honey, etc.

The fact that Vietnamese exports are facing more foreign trade defense investigations is an inevitable consequence of increased participation in global value chains amidst a volatile world situation. In this context, the Trade Defense Department has proactively coordinated with ministries, sectors, localities, and associations to support export businesses in effectively handling foreign trade defense cases.

The support activities of relevant authorities in handling foreign trade defense investigations have yielded positive results, with many cases where Vietnam has successfully proven that businesses are not dumping or that the government is not subsidizing or interfering in the market to create unfair advantages for exporting businesses. As a result, exporting businesses have either avoided or been subject to lower trade defense duties than initially alleged or compared to other countries facing similar duties, contributing to maintaining and expanding export markets.

Enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnam's manufacturing industries.

The Resolution of the 14th National Congress of the Party outlines 12 development orientations for the period 2026-2030, including: “ Establishing a new growth model with the goal of improving productivity, quality, efficiency, added value, and competitiveness of the economy; taking science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as the main driving forces; creating new high-quality production capacity and production methods, focusing on the data economy, digital economy, green economy, and circular economy; promoting digital transformation, green transformation, energy transformation, and structural and quality transformation of human resources. Identifying new growth drivers and focusing on science and technology to promote and renew traditional growth drivers. Forming strong growth poles, key economic regions, cities, and new-generation special economic zones on par with the region and the world. Strongly promoting economic growth while maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and ensuring "Major economic balances. Promoting industrialization, modernization, and urbanization. Effectively addressing the relationship between domestic production self-reliance and participation in global production networks and value chains ."

In the context of Vietnamese manufacturing sectors frequently being investigated for trade defense measures—sectors with high export value but low technological content or simple production or processing methods—the Trade Defense Department emphasizes that this new direction from the Party is extremely practical in enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese manufacturing sectors in general.

Immediately after the 14th National Congress of the Party, the Trade Defense Department identified key tasks to concretize the Party's policies and ensure harmony between protecting domestic production and promoting integration and transforming the growth model.

The tasks outlined by the Trade Defense Department are: Continuously reviewing, adjusting (if necessary), and improving the management functions and defense policies to meet the requirements of enhancing productivity, quality, and added value; strengthening the capacity for trade analysis and monitoring to detect risks early and protect the legitimate interests of the manufacturing sector; consolidating inter-agency coordination mechanisms and expanding international cooperation in exchanging investigation information; improving the capacity of trade defense officers, and regularly supporting and guiding businesses in responding to defense measures and adapting to new growth models.

Key tasks aimed at concretizing the Party's guidelines and ensuring harmony between protecting domestic production and promoting integration and transforming the growth model have been included in the work program and plan of the Trade Defense Department. The goal is to ensure consistency between the implementation of defense measures and the orientation towards sustainable economic development; and to create a basis for developing solutions, targets, and resources for implementation in the next phase.

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Tags: Trade Defense Department, trade defense

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/cuc-phong-ve-thuong-mai-dam-bao-hai-hoa-bao-ve-san-xuat-trong-nuoc-voi-thuc-day-hoi-nhap.html