According to the Vietnam RubberAssociation, the ministry issued a document earlier this week to inviteopinions about cutting the rubber export tax to zero from the current 1percent (applied on products coded HS 4001, 4002 and 4005) in responseto the association's petition.
The rubber industry has beenfacing difficulties during the past few years due to oversupply in theglobal market and plummeting international prices, which hit the localfarmers and companies hard.
Farmers in the central andsoutheastern provinces have reportedly cut down more rubber trees due toa significant fall in the natural rubber price. The price for a kilo ofnatural rubber latex decreased by half over last year's price toroughly 15,000 VND or 0.7 USD.
According to the statistics ofthe Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first sixmonths of this year, about 337,000 tonnes of rubber were shipped abroad,worth 644 million USD, 12 percent lower year-on-year.
TheVietnamese rubber prices declined between 2012 and June 2014 due tooversupply in the world market, according to thitruongcaosu.net website.
The average rubber export price in the first five months ofthis year fell by 29 percent year-on-year to 1,842 USD per tonne, 60percent lower than the peak price in February 2011.
In theworld market, rubber prices reportedly hit low levels in recent monthsover concerns of muted demand, oversupply and declining prices.
The Wall Street Journal, in an article published in May, reported thatThailand , the world's largest natural rubber producer, would startunloading its huge rubber stockpile estimated at 220,000 tonnes,leading to pressure on rubber prices.
The article also said that the stockpiles in major rubber consumers like China and Japan were also at high levels.-VNA