At the seminar “Solutions to limit Trade Remedy investigations for Vietnam’s exported agricultural and aquatic products”, representatives of the Trade Defense Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade informed a series of trends in related trade remedies. to Vietnamese goods.
Accordingly, Ms. Nga said that in 2021, for the first time, Vietnamese honey will be subject to an anti-dumping investigation conducted by the United States, although this product was investigated in 2021 by the US Department of Commerce (DOC). ) had a conclusion at the end of 2021 and by mid-2022 DOC imposed an official tax on honey, the preliminary tax was 400%, the final conclusion was reduced to 60%.
Ms. Nguyen Hang Nga, Deputy Head, Trade Remedy Handling Department, Trade Remedies Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade
According to Ms. Nga, in addition to honey, pangasius and shrimp were the first products to be investigated for anti-dumping by the United States, so since then, every year Vietnamese pangasius and basa fish have been subject to Chinese anti-dumping investigation. Ky still requests a review to investigate anti-dumping.
Particularly for shrimp today, Vietnamese businesses have to go through 18 major reviews, and for pangasius, there are 19 reviews.
Representative of the Trade Remedies Department informed that on October 25, DOC received an anti-subsidy lawsuit against this product. On November 21, DOC posted an official notice of anti-dumping investigation with 40 investigated programs. . This is quite a big case, attracting many people’s attention.
PVTM is different at each time. Recently PVTM has a quite clear trend. I would like to point out some trends. Previous trade remedy cases mainly focused on anti-dumping and anti-subsidy self-defense, but recently anti-tax evasion investigations have become more and more common and the United States is the country investigating anti-dumping and anti-subsidy. self-defense and anti-tax evasion the most with Vietnam.
For example, there are a total of more than 11 tax evasion investigations/23 trade remedy investigations for Vietnam, this is a trend that Vietnamese businesses need to pay attention to because of anti-tax evasion and anti-subsidy investigations. , the anti-dumping investigation process is quite different from the normal anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation.
Ms. Nga said that currently the requirements and challenges of the investigation agency are also very different, what is tax evasion is also different, businesses need to be equipped with more knowledge about this case. “In recent years, the United States has continuously investigated Vietnamese products for tax evasion on wood, solar panels and steel. In that case, very high tax investigations are allowed. from original investigation countries such as China, India… These things make Vietnamese businesses be wary and avoid abetting tax fraud.”
In addition, the trend of investigation into Vietnamese trade remedies is increasingly expanding, previously mainly from the US, EU, and developing countries. But recently, developing countries that have FTAs with Vietnam are investigating more and more, such as ASEAN, or countries participating in CPTPP such as Mexico. In the past two years, this country has also conducted two investigations on Vietnam’s steel products, it is expected that further investigations may be conducted in 2024. This is a trend that Vietnamese businesses should pay attention to.
According to Ms. Nga, the scope of investigation is broader, including previous anti-subsidy cases, basic and traditional investigation cases such as cases of land lease incentives and tax subsidies. But in 2020, the United States for the first time included the issue of currency undervaluation in the tax subsidy investigation program, which increased the burden on Vietnamese businesses to prove that these programs were not subsidies. tax.
The representative of the Trade Remedies Department said that in May 2023, the United States introduced a draft Law amending regulations on Trade Remedies to effectively implement new anti-dumping measures. In which they raised three issues such as strengthening the application of special market situation investigation in anti-dumping investigation cases, special market situation will allow the United States to apply measures to tax the markets they are investigating.
Second, they allow the application of cross-border subsidies, a point that makes subsidy lawsuits in Vietnam more complicated, and the use of alternative countries in reviews is also more difficult to predict because the United States does not Accepting alternative countries that are weak in terms of labor and environment.
Ms. Nga pointed out, for example, that in the most recent case against China, the United States refused to accept substitution from Malaysia on the issue of forced labor. They also tightened labor issues, this is an issue that Vietnam needs to pay attention to.
She said that the trend of investigation is also more strict, investigation procedures are rarely extended, requests for cooperation are also more strict, if businesses do not cooperate, replying with information causes confusion and discord. real.. The United States also believes that it is uncooperative to impose higher taxes.
“Finally, we emphasize that the current anti-dumping tax margin is very high due to the issue of market costs. Currently, the Vietnamese Government is stepping up its request for the US to recognize a market economy for Vietnam, Thereby minimizing high tax rates for Vietnamese businesses in response to defensive investigation conclusions,” said a representative of the Trade Remedies Department.