According to Mr. Bui Tuan Hoan, Head of the Americas Department, Europe – Americas Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), since the CPTPP Agreement took effect, Vietnam’s exports to CPTPP member countries in the European region America grew strongly.
There are 4 American countries participating in CPTPP: Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile; Of which, except for Chile, there is a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam; Canada, Mexico and Peru are three markets that have FTA relations with Vietnam for the first time, so the tariff incentives in CPTPP have a very positive impact on Vietnam’s export activities to these markets.
The CPTPP markets that Vietnam participates in are also promoting market protection through trade dispute lawsuits
Specifically, in 2021, exports to the four CPTPP countries in the Americas will reach more than 12 billion USD; Of which, exports to Canada reached 5.3 billion USD and increased by 75% compared to the time before the Agreement took effect. Or for Mexico, exports to this market reached 4.6 billion USD and increased by over 105% compared to the time before the agreement took effect.
Exports to Peru are similar, although the Agreement has just been ratified in 2021, it also reached 560 million USD, an increase of 85%. Chile, although it has not ratified the Agreement, also reached 1.7 billion USD, an increase of 63%. So, these are very impressive numbers.
However, high export performance also causes Vietnamese businesses, industries and products to face great challenges from trade defense lawsuits because many countries have been using trade remedies as a way to protect the market. , competing with Vietnamese goods.
Regarding the trend of trade defense cases related to Vietnam’s FTA markets in general and CPTPP countries’ markets in particular, the representative of the Trade Remedies Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasized that many CPTPP members have been participating in trade remedy investigations with Vietnam.
For example, trade defense laws are allowed by members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to protect domestic production. Therefore, countries that do not have an FTA with Vietnam have also investigated and applied many trade defense measures.
Statistics show that Australia has currently investigated up to 18 trade remedy cases against Vietnam, equivalent to Canada and Malaysia also having over 10 cases. In addition, since Mexico had an FTA with Vietnam, businesses have also increased exports to Mexico, and from 2019 onwards, there have been 3 new cases, all of which arose after signing the CPTPP Agreement. along with Mexico.
Mr. Vu Van Phu, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Aluminum Association, said that currently, the general awareness of trade defense among businesses in the shrimp industry is still uneven, some businesses are aware, others are aware of it. still not given enough attention.
He said that export businesses are still mainly concerned with market prices and tax rates, but not many businesses spend time and effort to learn about policies, hire consultants and have plans to limit risks. trade defense.
“Only when it comes to business-related cases do they begin to seek information and respond passively. Recently, trade defense in countries around the world as well as in Vietnam has increased, businesses “Businesses have just begun to pay attention to trade defense, so businesses’ awareness has also begun to change,” Mr. Phu said.
In fact, not only seafood, aluminum and steel, but also many key export products of Vietnam have been threatened with trade defense lawsuits, anti-dumping, origin evasion, and tax evasion. .
The trend of globalization is happening strongly, which has caused many import taxes to be abolished, and competition acts with defense lawsuits to increase to eliminate the influence of goods from exporting countries. . To avoid the risk of defense lawsuits and win foreign lawsuits, businesses need to soon build a proactive program to face major trade defense challenges.
