Many trade remedy lawsuits target Vietnam's plywood products. Photo: N.H

Defense is an important part of international trade

A Conference has been recently held to review Vietnam's 20 years of trade remedy work. Mr. Le Trieu Dung, Director of the Trade Remedies Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that the 2002 - 2022 period witnessed the diversity in bilateral and multilateral trade relations in the world. If in 2002 - 2011, liberalization took place in the direction of globalization, then in the following decade (2011 - 2022); liberalization was shaped by countries in a regional direction. Over the past 20 years, many bilateral and multilateral FTAs have been signed, creating strong connections between each partner and each group of partners.

According to Mr. Le Trieu Dung, the application of trade remedies is considered an important part of each country's international trade policy because the purpose is to protect or support the domestic manufacturing industry in the process of integration and liberalization. In that context, due to the rapid increase in the export capacity of Vietnam's goods, Vietnamese exports have become the subject of trade remedy measures by trading partners.

According to WTO statistics, from the establishment of the WTO to the end of November 2022, countries have investigated more than 6,400 anti-dumping cases, more than 640 anti-subsidy cases, and more than 400 self-defense cases.

By the end of November 2022, Vietnam's exports have been investigated by 22 countries/territories for applying trade remedies with a total of 225 trade remedy cases.

Not only items with large export turnover such as wood products, pangasius, basa fish, shrimp, footwear, textiles, and steel, but also items with smaller export turnover such as honey, ceramic tiles, and cigarette wrappers have also been investigated for trade remedies.

Along with responding to trade remedy cases, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has handled five dispute settlement cases at the WTO. In which, three cases have ended and brought positive results for Vietnam, including Vietnam suing US shrimp anti-dumping measures; and Vietnam suing for safeguard measures against cold steel products of Indonesia. Basically, the conclusions of the WTO dispute settlement body are in favor of Vietnamese businesses.

In the opposite direction, the Ministry of Industry and Trade initiated an investigation to apply a total of 25 trade remedy cases. Thanks to the application of reasonable trade remedies in accordance with international commitments, domestic manufacturing industries are protected against unfair competition practices, thereby creating favorable conditions for manufacturing industries in developed countries, creating more jobs and added value for the economy.

Review of regulations on origin standards

According to Mr. Le Trieu Dung, the number of applications of trade remedies has shown signs of an increase compared to the period before 2011. However, compared with the correlation of the number of cases that the agencies have international investigations conducted, the number of dossiers requested in Vietnam is still limit ed.

In the future, the Trade Remedies Department will continue to actively coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors to help businesses minimize the impact of trade remedies; promoting the implementation of early warning helps the aviation industry be passive before trade remedy cases; strengthening propaganda on trade remedies to enterprises, branches and localities; consolidating the mechanism for uniform and cross-cutting coordination in handling trade remedy cases among ministries, central and local branches; between domestic and foreign agencies; between state management agencies and associations.

Dao Duy Tam, Deputy Director of the Department of Supervision and Management, General Department of Customs, said that it is expected that the trend of avoiding trade remedies will become more and more complicated, as well as the trend of electronics in import and export.

Therefore, it is necessary to introduce regulations on the origin of goods for goods subject to the application of trade remedies to protect the interests of the domestic industry.