The United States received a request for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into hardwood and decorative plywood products imported from Vietnam.

On May 22, 2025, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) received a petition for antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of hardwood and veneer plywood imported from China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. In this case, the above-mentioned products from all three countries are proposed for both AD and CVD investigations.

Bộ Công thương•28/05/2025

1. General information about the case

- Case code: A-552-851 (CBPG) and C-552-852 (CTC).

- Products proposed for investigation: Hardwood and decorative plywood, mainly belonging to HS code groups 4412 and 9403.

- Plaintiff: Fair Trade Association for Hardwood Plywood of America.

- Application date: May 22, 2025.

- Exporting enterprises accused of dumping and subsidization: The Plaintiff named more than 130 Vietnamese companies, including many large exporting enterprises, such as Tekcom Joint Stock Company, Khang Dat Wood Company Limited, Trieu Thai Son Company Limited, Thai Hoang Construction and Trading Joint Stock Company.

- Proposed CBPG/CTC investigation period: 2024.

- Proposed damage investigation period: 03 years (2022-2024).

- Export turnover: According to data cited by the Plaintiff from the US International Trade Commission (ITC), in the period 2022-2024, Vietnam exported approximately 401 million USD, 186 million USD and 244 million USD of the accused products to the US, respectively, ranking 2nd among the 3 countries under investigation, after Indonesia.

- Countries proposed for investigation: China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

1.1. Information on alleged dumping:

- Alleged anti-dumping margin on goods exported from Vietnam: About 112.33 to 133.72% (lowest among the 3 investigated countries) .

- Surrogate country and value: Similar to recent cases, since the United States considers Vietnam a non-market economy , DOC will use the surrogate values of a third country to calculate the dumping margin for Vietnam. In this case, the petitioner proposed to use Indonesia as a surrogate country because it believes that Indonesia has a similar level of economic development to Vietnam and has a significant number of wood producers under investigation. The parties have a 60-day period to comment on the surrogate country before DOC issues its preliminary determination of the case.

1.2. Information on alleged subsidies

- Alleged CTC margin on goods exported from Vietnam: Plaintiff did not make any allegations regarding subsidy margin.

- Alleged subsidy programs: The Plaintiff alleges that Vietnamese hardwood and decorative plywood producers/exporters have received 26 subsidy programs from the Government , causing significant injury or threatening to cause significant injury to the U.S. domestic industry. The alleged subsidy programs fall into the following categories:

(1) Group of loan programs: including preferential loan programs of State-owned joint stock commercial banks (SOCBs); factoring programs of SOCBs; export guarantees of SOCBs; investment credit and export credit programs of the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB); preferential interest rate support programs of the State Bank.

(2) Sponsorship programs: include export promotion sponsorship programs and investment support.

(3) Group of corporate income tax incentive programs: including programs on corporate income tax incentives in special zones; tax incentives under Decree No. 24/2007/ND-CP; accelerated depreciation programs and increased deductible expenses.

(4) Group of preferential programs on import tax exemption and refund: including programs on import tax exemption for export production; import tax refund for raw materials for export production; import tax exemption when importing into industrial zones; import tax exemption for FDI enterprises; import tax exemption for raw materials for export processing enterprises and export processing zones; support packages for small and medium enterprises; incentives for supporting industries.

(5) Group of land incentive programs: including programs to exempt or reduce land/water surface rent for encouraged industries; exempt land use tax/fee for encouraged industries; exempt or reduce land rent for enterprises in special zones according to Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP; exempt or reduce rent for FDI enterprises; exempt or reduce rent according to Decision No. 189/2000.

(6) Providing utilities at preferential prices: including programs to provide electricity, water and other utilities in industrial parks and export processing zones at preferential prices; providing input sawn timber at preferential prices

(7) Transnational Subsidies: The Plaintiff alleges that the Chinese Government owns almost all of the forest area in China, through its restriction on logging permits. This has led to Chinese veneer being sold at a lower price than normal. Vietnamese manufacturers/exporters, when importing veneer to produce the investigated products, have indirectly received subsidies from the Chinese Government.

2. Further investigation procedures

According to the US investigation regulations, there are 02 agencies participating in an anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation case: DOC investigates dumping and subsidy behavior and is responsible for the investigation results while ITC is responsible for assessing the damage to the domestic industry. Products are only subject to anti-dumping/countervailing duty if both agencies issue affirmative conclusions. If in an anti-dumping case, only the exporting enterprise is the subject of investigation, in an anti-dumping case, the Government is also the subject of investigation.

The next CBPG and CTC investigation procedure is as follows (Timelines may be extended):

Step 1: The government of the investigated country (Vietnam) consults with DOC on the request for a CTC investigation.

Step 2: DOC has 20 days to review the request for investigation and issue a decision to initiate/not initiate an investigation, expected by June 11, 2025. In some special cases, DOC may extend this period to a total of 40 days.

Step 3: The ITC has 45 days from the date of receipt of the petition to issue a preliminary determination of injury. If the ITC makes a preliminary determination of no injury, the case will be dismissed in its entirety (although this is unlikely).

Step 4: DOC has 140 days from the date of initiation to issue a preliminary determination of dumping and 65 days from the date of initiation to issue a preliminary determination of subsidy.

Step 5: DOC has 75 days from the date of issuance of the preliminary determination to issue a final determination on dumping/subsidy.

Step 6: The ITC has 45 days from the date of DOC's final determination of dumping/subsidy to make its final determination of injury.

Step 7: DOC has 07 days to issue the Anti-dumping/Anti-subsidy Order (in case of concluding that there is dumping/subsidy and injury).

(Timelines may be extended)

3. Recommendations

Above is some information related to the case of receiving dossiers requesting CBPG and CTC investigation into imported hardwood and decorative plywood from Vietnam and some other countries.

To prepare to respond to the incident, the Department of Trade Remedies recommends that enterprises producing and exporting related products:

- Closely monitor the next developments of the case; proactively research and master the regulations, procedures, and processes of US anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations and plan a suitable countervailing strategy for the business (in case the DOC initiates an investigation); diversify export markets and products;

- Fully cooperate with the US Investigation Agency throughout the course of the case. Any act of non-cooperation or incomplete cooperation may result in the US Investigation Agency using available evidence to the disadvantage or applying the highest alleged anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates to the enterprise;

- Proactively register for an IA ACCESS account at the DOC electronic portal ( https://access.trade.gov/login.aspx ) to update information and submit documents and materials related to the US Investigation Agency;

- Regularly coordinate and update information with the PVTM Department to receive timely support.

For more information, please contact: Foreign Trade Enforcement Department, Trade Enforcement Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade , 54 Hai Ba Trung, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi (In charge: Tran Thi Lan Huong, Email: [email protected] , [email protected], [email protected] . Website: http://trav.gov.vn/ .

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/thi-truong-nuoc-ngoai/hoa-ky-nhan-ho-so-de-nghi-dieu-tra-chong-ban-pha-gia-va-chong-tro-cap-doi-voi-san-pham-go-dan-cung-va-trang-tri-nhap-kha.html

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