Eighteen products exported to the US from Việt Nam are facing the risk of being investigated for trade defence measures. —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade has provided early warnings for 18 export products originating from Việt Nam which were facing a high risk of being investigated for trade defence measures, origin fraud and illegal transshipment.

Those products include hardwood plywood, wooden cabinets and vanities, seats with wooden frames, upholstered, quartz surface products, ceramic tile, steel propane cylinders, carton-closing staples, wood mouldings, millwork products, solar panels, CORE, pipe and tube, prestressed concrete, steel wire strand, large residential washers, aluminium wire and cable, aluminium extrusions, stainless steel flanges exported to the US and electric bicycles exported to the US and EU.

For hardwood plywood, early warning was issued from July 2019 after the US imposed anti-dumping duty on the same products originating from China from October 2017.

Việt Nam’s export of hardwood plywood increased rapidly from $33.4 million in 2016 to $322.2 million in 2019. The export revenue to the US from July 2022 to June 2023 reached $378.9 million, accounting for 27.8 per cent of the US’s import.

The US Customs and Border Protection in October 2019 initiated investigations for tax evasion of several US companies importing hardwood plywood from Việt Nam.

The US Department of Commerce initiated circumvention investigation on plywood imported from Việt Nam in June 2020 and issued the final decision in July 2023 which said that plywood which had the core produced from peeled wood imported from China was considered to be evading the trade remedy measures applied to plywood imported from China.

For wooden cabinets and vanities, Việt Nam’s export to the US also increased strongly from $913 million in 2018 to $1.37 billion in 2019. The total export value to the US in the period from July 2022 to June 2023 exceeded $2.7 billion, or 3.8 per cent of the US’s import.

The investigation on wooden cabinets originating from Việt Nam was initiated in May 2022 and initial decisions were expected to be announced in October.

The US imposed an anti-dumping duty from 4.37 per cent to 262.18 per cent, and an anti-subsidy duty from 13.33 per cent to 292.45 per cent on similar products originated from China.

The export of seats with wooden frames, upholstered, also saw strong increases to the US from $819 million in 2018 to $2.1 billion to 2020. During the 12 months ending in June, the export revenue was $2.2 billion, or 34.2 per cent of the US’s import. The similar product originated from China was subject to a tariff of 25 per cent in the US.

For other products, the US was also imposing trade defence measures on those originating from China and the exports of Việt Nam to the US were seeing significant increases, pushing these products to the risk of being investigated for trade defence measures, the Việt Nam Trade Remedies Authority said.

The authority urged enterprises to improve the origin traceability and to avoid using materials from China which were subject to duties in the US.