Ensuring benefits for domestic manufacturing industries

Active coordination

Free Trade Agreement (FTA) commitments help boost exports but also cause Vietnamese exports to continue to be investigated for trade remedies (TPR) by foreign markets. In 2023, Vietnamese exports faced 12 TPR investigations. In addition, a number of product lines are continuing to be investigated for investigations initiated in 2022. In total, Vietnam is handling 22 TPR investigations by foreign countries. Thus, to date, there have been 239 TPR investigations against Vietnamese goods.

The activities of supporting businesses by the authorities in handling foreign PVTM investigations have brought about positive results. Photo: VNA

In response to investigations from foreign markets, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has proactively coordinated with ministries, branches, localities, and associations to support export enterprises in effectively handling foreign trade remedies cases through diverse activities. The activities to support enterprises by competent agencies in handling foreign trade remedy investigations have brought about positive results, recording many cases in which Vietnam has been successful in proving that enterprises do not dump or that the Government does not subsidize or intervene in the market to create unfair advantages for export enterprises.

Specifically, thanks to timely intervention, the PVTM work achieved some results, such as the United States concluded that Vietnam's stainless steel wire did not evade the PVTM tax currently applied to Korea, some steel pipe products did not evade the PVTM tax currently applied to Taiwan (China), a large Vietnamese solar panel enterprise did not evade tax and temporarily exempted tax on this item, the Vietnamese Government did not subsidize tire exporting enterprises reviewed in 2021; the Philippines reduced anti-dumping tax on cement compared to the previous tax order; Australia ended the anti-dumping investigation on ammonium nitrate; Mexico assessed that Vietnam's galvanized steel industry operates according to market mechanisms and reduced anti-dumping tax on galvanized steel in the final conclusion compared to the previous preliminary conclusion.

In addition, the highlight of the work of trade remedies is that the Ministry of Industry and Trade regularly monitors and provides a warning list of some export items at risk of being investigated for evasion of trade remedies and origin fraud, thereby helping to detect and handle individual enterprises that violate the origin of goods or only carry out production stages with insignificant value-added content in Vietnam. Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has updated and monitored over 170 items, including an early warning list for 18 items at risk of being investigated for application of trade remedies. This helps ministries, branches, localities and enterprises to be proactive in responding to foreign trade remedies and proactively develop production and export strategies, prepare resources; develop response plans, helping to minimize the negative impacts caused by foreign trade remedies.

Regarding domestic trade remedies, up to now, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has initiated a total of 27 trade remedy cases. The work of initiating lawsuits, investigating and applying trade remedy measures continues to be promoted, re-establishing a fair competitive environment for domestic manufacturing industries in the context of a rapid increase in imported goods showing signs of dumping or receiving subsidies contrary to international commitments, causing significant and serious damage to a number of domestic manufacturing industries. Thereby contributing to increasing state budget revenue, supporting the recovery and development of domestic manufacturing industries; contributing to increasing added value in the economy , ensuring jobs and income for workers.

Continue to implement 3 key activities

Talking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. Chu Thang Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Remedies, Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in 2023, trade remedy investigations will continue to follow the trend of recent years, that is, in addition to traditional trade remedy investigations such as subsidies and self-defense, there have been more and more investigations against the evasion of trade remedy measures. Up to now, our export goods have faced 37 cases of foreign anti-evasion trade remedy investigation, of which 4 cases in 2023 alone included items with large export turnover such as solar panels, aluminum cables, steel cart wheels, cold-rolled stainless steel. " With the policy of facilitating trade exchanges and actively participating in the process of international economic integration, Vietnam has become a source of international investment attraction . Therefore, the trend of anti-evasion trade remedy investigation will continue in the coming time, " Mr. Trung emphasized.

Mr. Chu Thang Trung emphasized that facing trade remedies has many potential risks. In particular, if high tax rates are imposed, it will lead to a loss of competitive advantage in the export market. Along with that, it will lead to a decrease in market share and no export to other markets. maximum damage that can happen to Vietnamese enterprises and exports. Meanwhile, in terms of business response capacity, compared to before, awareness of trade remedies has improved greatly. However, due to the increasing expansion of trade remedies activities in terms of markets and industries, there are more risks and dangers of becoming the subject of trade remedies investigations in foreign markets. In particular, new enterprises and new industries are confused and have not really paid attention to the possible impacts.

In 2024, it is forecasted that the export of goods will continue to increase, the market will continue to expand thanks to the implementation of FTAs entering a new phase, so the risk of being investigated for trade remedies will also be higher due to the protectionist trend of foreign markets. In that context, Mr. Chu Thang Trung said that the Department of Trade Remedies will continue to promote trade remedies, focusing on supporting businesses in handling trade remedy investigations for exported goods with 3 key activities: First , continue to operate the early warning system to analyze, evaluate, and identify possible risks to specific industries and markets, thereby helping businesses and industries to prepare early, from afar, and be ready to respond to actual risks that may occur. Second , improve the capacity to respond to and handle PVTM measures, thereby guiding businesses to grasp and have basic awareness of PVTM, so that they can visualize the activities that need to be deployed and handled when incidents actually occur. Third , in specific PVTM investigations, the PVTM Department will provide more specific advice on the procedures that businesses must comply with, and at the same time, on that basis, develop appropriate handling and response strategies.

Regarding domestic trade remedies, in the context of promoting economic integration, the Trade Remedies Authority will also continue to conduct trade remedy investigations on imported goods in a fair, public and transparent manner. In particular, the Trade Remedies Authority will collect information and listen to the opinions of all parties, not only the domestic manufacturing industry but also the relevant parties affected by trade remedy measures to make recommendations and proposals to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the fair application of trade remedy measures in accordance with the provisions of law and international commitments.

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