Trade remedies are an effective tool to protect the rights domestic manufacturing industries in the context of integration. However, not many enterprises have enough knowledge and skills to use this tool effectively.

Trade remedy seminar - A tool to protect theinterests ofdomestic industry
in the context of integration. Photo: H. Duu

On October 27, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) worked with the Vietnam Trade and Industry Bureau (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to hold a seminar on trade remedies - a tool to protect interests of domestic industry in the context of integration.

Being applied trade defence when exporting goods

Trade defence includes anti-dumping, countervailing, trade safeguard measures, which are a very important tool when Vietnam has opened the domestic market for goods from 51 partner countries, in 13free trade agreements (FTA) taken effect, and most recently the FTA with the EU (EVFTA).

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the WTO and Integration Center (VCCI), integration brings many opportunities but challenges are not small, in which, if goods imported into Vietnam are not healthy competition, and dump, they will damage both consumers and theeconomy. The review shows that the sources of goods entering Vietnam are also the most sued countries in the world. For example, China - the largest source of imports into Vietnam, from 1995 to 2019, China was sued over 1,500 cases.

According to Pham Chau Giang, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Trade Defence Bureau, Vietnam has been investigated for 189 cases for exported goods, but we only apply trade remedies to 20 cases.

This is a quite large difference, but according to Giang, the effectiveness of trade remedy measures is very large. Specifically, it helps increase the budget revenue of trillions of dong per year, protects the interests of domestic manufacturing industries - these industries contribute up to 6% of total GDP, helping many enterprises overcome difficulties and reduce the risk of investigated goods due to evadingtrade remedy measures.

Typically, Pham Chau Giang said that not long ago, the US applied many measures of trade remedies with steel from China, Japan, and Taiwan, but at that time we were applying trade remedy measures with Chinese steel, therefore, enterprises use cold rolled steel from Vietnam to export to the US, thus reducing the risk of US investigation with Vietnamese steel.

However, arepresentative of leadership of trade remedies said that Vietnam's limitation was that the law on trade remedies had not completed yet, the capacity of the investigation agencies should study, accumulate experience, and business community awareness had not been high andlack coordination among management agencies.

Also on this issue, according to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, domestic enterprises still did not have adequate attention to trade remedies. While FDI enterprises have a department to review regulations to make operational strategies, until signing orders andeven exporting goods, many Vietnamese enterprises did not know this country was applying trade remedy measures for Vietnameseexports.

Need coordination to get information

From the above issues, the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said the ministry was collecting opinions to develop a draft decision approving the project on capacity building on trade remedies in the context of integration. In particular, the ministry would focus on completing legal documents and policies on trade remedies, improving the capacity of management agencies, building a coordination mechanism among relevant agencies, promoting training andpromoting international cooperation.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is also consulting a draft circular guiding the implementation of the EVFTA on trade remedies. The draft aims to create a legal basis for the investigation on theapplication of trade remedy measures according to EVFTA, to internalize EVFTA's regulations to propagate and disseminate these regulations to enterprises.

Therefore, at the seminar, enterprises and experts all highly appreciate these actions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, to ensure transparency in investigation and implementation. However, enterprises want to have coordination on information among ministries and agencies, especially the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Customs office to obtain data and information when building and applying trade remedy measures.

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, the goal of building an interconnected one-door system between the trade remedy agency and the Customs in the Project was essential to be able to access information accurately and officially. However, it was necessary to specify whichthe objects could have access this one-stop shop, how enterprises would have access to information and data on production, import and export...

From the above issues, Le Trieu Dung, Director of the Trade Remedy Bureau, said that it would absorb the comments to complete and soon issue the project and draft on trade defence.

But he also emphasized trade remedies was not a protection tool of the management agencies but a tool to protect the interests of enterprises, so enterprises must take trade remedy into their strategy, a factor which needs to be dealt with in their production - business activities.