Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - While local export products have been facing moreanti-dumping investigations and tax evasion cases in foreign countries,Vietnamese enterprises are still unaware of the risk.
OnAugust 13, the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam(TRAV) sent a letter opposing Indonesia's draft conclusions of an anti-dumpinginvestigation on colour-coated steel sheet products imported from Vietnam andChina, adding several conclusions have yet to reflect issues related tovalue-added tax and overlaps in calculations.
Atthe end of July, the Malaysian Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) announcedit would initiate an anti-dumping investigation on cold rolled stainless steelproducts originating from Vietnam and Indonesia. MITI has announced anadministrative review of the 2016 anti-dumping tax order on cold rolled steelproducts, originating from Vietnam.
Inaddition to the two mentioned products, TRAV announced a monitoring listconsisting of 13 export goods identified as high-risk of being investigated andsued in the US and EU markets for origin fraud and illegal transfer.
Thegoods included plywood from hardwood, foam cushions, wooden cabinets,artificial stones, ceramic tiles, copper pipes, truck and car tyres, electricbicycles, steel joints, steel wheels, pre-engineered steel, gas cylinders andboxed pins.
Forexample, plywood products are being subjected to anti-dumping tax andanti-subsidy tax on Chinese products in the US market. According to sources,China's export turnover to the US has decreased sharply from 1.1 billion USD in2016 to 215.6 million USD in 2019. During the same period, Vietnam's exportturnover to the US increased rapidly from 33.4 million USD in 2016 to 322.2million USD in 2019.
Lastyear alone, Vietnam's plywood export turnover increased by 63.7 percentcompared to 2018.
InOctober 2019, the US’ customs and border guard officially announced aninvestigation of tax evasion for a number of US companies importing plywoodfrom Vietnam.
InJune 2020, the US Department of Commerce officially initiated a tax evasioninvestigation on all plywood products imported from Vietnam after five monthsof receiving the application to initiate the investigation of tax evasion.
PhanKhanh An, Deputy Head of Legal Division under the Department of Trade Defencesaid that in 2020, Vietnam was dealing with 27 different trade defencecases. By the end of March 2020, there were 22 cases of tax evasion initiatedby foreign countries and applied to exported goods of Vietnam.
However,An noted: “The current level of knowledge of Vietnamese enterprises about tradedefence is very low.”
Anquoted a recent survey showing 15.09 percent of enterprises do not knowanything about trade defence, while up to 63.21 percent of them have heard ofthe issue but do not know enough.
While19.81 percent of the local enterprises have completed preliminary studies aboutthe matter, less than 2 percent have carefully researched the issue of tradedefence.
PhungGia Duc, deputy head of the Foreign Trade Defence Division, advised businessesthat they need to proactively respond to foreign trade remedies and asked them“not to participate or abide in acts of origin fraud or illegal transmission inforeign markets.”
Ducnoted that: “If Vietnamese enterprises are still unaware of trade protection inother countries, they are more likely to face anti-dumping lawsuits and taxevasion probes on their exports and it will affect the whole manufacturingindustry in Vietnam.”
Accordingto experts, with certain limitations on the origin of goods and the lack ofthorough understanding of trade defence, the local enterprises wouldbe vulnerable when faced with anti-dumping and taxevasion investigations from importing countries.
Besidesavoiding anti-dumping probes in foreign countries, Chu Thang Trung, deputydirector of MoIT’s Trade and Industry Department, told local media: “Thecapacity of self-protection against anti-dumping cases and unfair competitionfrom imported goods in the local market is still limited. Enterprises'awareness and understanding of the matter is low.”
Trungsaid the recent MoIT decision No 1347 was issued to develop an equalcompetitive environment, remove export barriers and improve capacity for thebusiness community and associations in the industry on the matter. It willfocus on training domestic manufacturing associations and the businesscommunity on trade remedies in 2020 and in years to come.
Trungadded it was to provide Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and mediumenterprises, with tools to protect their legitimate interests and improve theefficiency of international economic integration.
NguyenThị Thu Trang, Director of the WTO Integration Centre under the Vietnam Chamberof Commerce and Industry (VCCI), told Vietnam News: “Enterprises must learnabout foreign investigation mechanisms, regulations and procedures, proactivelyperfecting the management system and data to ensure requirements forinformation are met and proving the origin of raw materials; to develop astrategy to diversify products and export markets to disperse risks, avoid concentratinglarge-volume exports on one market.”
Atthe same time, Trang also suggested enterprises develop domestic raw materialsto increase the added value of their products and avoid investigations./.
OnAugust 13, the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam(TRAV) sent a letter opposing Indonesia's draft conclusions of an anti-dumpinginvestigation on colour-coated steel sheet products imported from Vietnam andChina, adding several conclusions have yet to reflect issues related tovalue-added tax and overlaps in calculations.
Atthe end of July, the Malaysian Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) announcedit would initiate an anti-dumping investigation on cold rolled stainless steelproducts originating from Vietnam and Indonesia. MITI has announced anadministrative review of the 2016 anti-dumping tax order on cold rolled steelproducts, originating from Vietnam.
Inaddition to the two mentioned products, TRAV announced a monitoring listconsisting of 13 export goods identified as high-risk of being investigated andsued in the US and EU markets for origin fraud and illegal transfer.
Thegoods included plywood from hardwood, foam cushions, wooden cabinets,artificial stones, ceramic tiles, copper pipes, truck and car tyres, electricbicycles, steel joints, steel wheels, pre-engineered steel, gas cylinders andboxed pins.
Forexample, plywood products are being subjected to anti-dumping tax andanti-subsidy tax on Chinese products in the US market. According to sources,China's export turnover to the US has decreased sharply from 1.1 billion USD in2016 to 215.6 million USD in 2019. During the same period, Vietnam's exportturnover to the US increased rapidly from 33.4 million USD in 2016 to 322.2million USD in 2019.
Lastyear alone, Vietnam's plywood export turnover increased by 63.7 percentcompared to 2018.
InOctober 2019, the US’ customs and border guard officially announced aninvestigation of tax evasion for a number of US companies importing plywoodfrom Vietnam.
InJune 2020, the US Department of Commerce officially initiated a tax evasioninvestigation on all plywood products imported from Vietnam after five monthsof receiving the application to initiate the investigation of tax evasion.
PhanKhanh An, Deputy Head of Legal Division under the Department of Trade Defencesaid that in 2020, Vietnam was dealing with 27 different trade defencecases. By the end of March 2020, there were 22 cases of tax evasion initiatedby foreign countries and applied to exported goods of Vietnam.
However,An noted: “The current level of knowledge of Vietnamese enterprises about tradedefence is very low.”
Anquoted a recent survey showing 15.09 percent of enterprises do not knowanything about trade defence, while up to 63.21 percent of them have heard ofthe issue but do not know enough.
While19.81 percent of the local enterprises have completed preliminary studies aboutthe matter, less than 2 percent have carefully researched the issue of tradedefence.
PhungGia Duc, deputy head of the Foreign Trade Defence Division, advised businessesthat they need to proactively respond to foreign trade remedies and asked them“not to participate or abide in acts of origin fraud or illegal transmission inforeign markets.”
Ducnoted that: “If Vietnamese enterprises are still unaware of trade protection inother countries, they are more likely to face anti-dumping lawsuits and taxevasion probes on their exports and it will affect the whole manufacturingindustry in Vietnam.”
Accordingto experts, with certain limitations on the origin of goods and the lack ofthorough understanding of trade defence, the local enterprises wouldbe vulnerable when faced with anti-dumping and taxevasion investigations from importing countries.
Besidesavoiding anti-dumping probes in foreign countries, Chu Thang Trung, deputydirector of MoIT’s Trade and Industry Department, told local media: “Thecapacity of self-protection against anti-dumping cases and unfair competitionfrom imported goods in the local market is still limited. Enterprises'awareness and understanding of the matter is low.”
Trungsaid the recent MoIT decision No 1347 was issued to develop an equalcompetitive environment, remove export barriers and improve capacity for thebusiness community and associations in the industry on the matter. It willfocus on training domestic manufacturing associations and the businesscommunity on trade remedies in 2020 and in years to come.
Trungadded it was to provide Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and mediumenterprises, with tools to protect their legitimate interests and improve theefficiency of international economic integration.
NguyenThị Thu Trang, Director of the WTO Integration Centre under the Vietnam Chamberof Commerce and Industry (VCCI), told Vietnam News: “Enterprises must learnabout foreign investigation mechanisms, regulations and procedures, proactivelyperfecting the management system and data to ensure requirements forinformation are met and proving the origin of raw materials; to develop astrategy to diversify products and export markets to disperse risks, avoid concentratinglarge-volume exports on one market.”
Atthe same time, Trang also suggested enterprises develop domestic raw materialsto increase the added value of their products and avoid investigations./.
VNA