Ships carrying import-export goods arrive at Chu Lai port.

Prevent early, from afar

Recently, the Trade Remedies Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) informed that Taiwan (China) initiated an anti-dumping investigation on cement and clinker originating or imported from Vietnam. Specifically, the items under investigation are cement and clinker classified according to Taiwan's (China) import codes 2523.29.90.00.2 and 2523.10.90.00.3. The party requesting the investigation is the Taiwan Cement Manufacturers Association (China). The plaintiff named 7 Vietnamese enterprises. In addition to these 7 enterprises, there are other enterprises that also export investigated goods to Taiwan (China). The dumping investigation period is from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 with the alleged dumping margin with Vietnam being 16.99 percent.

The Trade Remedies Department recommends that associations and related manufacturing and exporting enterprises need to carefully study the request documents, initiation notices and related instructions and regulations. At the same time, send the confirmation form according to the prescribed content and deadline; cooperate fully and comprehensively to answer the investigation questionnaire and provide information as requested by the investigation agency.

In trade defense lawsuits, the United States is the country that investigates and applies the most trade defense measures to Vietnamese export goods. According to statistics from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States is currently the leading country in the world in investigating and applying trade defense measures and is also the country that investigates and applies many trade defense measures, especially for Vietnamese export goods. So far, the United States has investigated 64 cases out of the total foreign cases investigated with Vietnam (accounting for 25 percent), including: 28 anti-dumping cases, 11 anti-subsidy cases, 22 anti-trade tax evasion cases and 3 self-defense cases.

In order to get the best results, the Trade Remedies Department notes that Vietnamese exporters when being investigated by the United States for applying trade defense measures need to proactively develop proposals for alternative countries (in or out of DOC list) and appropriate alternative data sources for each cost item as soon as information about the incident becomes available. Enterprises can proactively contact and consult information from associations, businesses in the industry, foreign or international associations related to the investigated products, and importers; refer to the experience of associations and businesses with low tax rates to search and identify countries and alternative public data sources, in accordance with DOC criteria, appropriate to the investigation stage. Develop an argument and submit water proposals and replacement values ​​on time; at the same time, fully cooperate with the US investigation agency throughout the process of the case.

Protect domestic manufacturing industries

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that as of June 2024, Vietnam had faced 252 trade defense investigation cases from 24 markets with a variety of products.

In addition, foreign investigation agencies regularly review trade defense cases with very complex processes and requirements.

Under this situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also updated the warning list of goods at risk of being investigated for trade remedies and preventing trade defense evasion until June and has sent it to ministries, branches, People's Committees of provinces, relevant associations and businesses for coordinated monitoring.

At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also warned about the risk of countries investigating trade remedies against Vietnamese export goods. The most recent is a warning that the European Union (EU) plans to conduct an anti-dumping investigation on hot rolled steel products exported from Vietnam. Early warning work as well as supporting businesses to respond to trade defense cases have brought positive results. In many cases, export enterprises are not subject to trade defense tax or are subject to low tax rates, contributing to maintaining and expanding export markets.

Besides, Vietnam always proactively applies and responds to trade defense measures to prevent the negative effects of massively imported goods, unfair competition, and protect domestic production industries. Since the beginning of August 2024, the Trade Remedies Department has announced a final investigation and review of the application of trade remedies to a number of imported products such as: Final review investigation to apply anti-dumping measures on MSG products originating from China, Indonesia and plastic products made from polymers originating from Malaysia, Thailand and China...

At the end of July 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also issued a decision to investigate and apply anti-dumping measures on some hot-rolled steel products originating from India and China; decided to investigate and apply anti-dumping measures on a number of galvanized steel products originating from China and South Korea...

According to experts, one of the great effects of trade remedies is to help re-create a healthy and fair competitive environment; prevent dumping and selling goods into Vietnam that are subsidized by the exporting country.