This is increasingly important amidst the deepereconomic integration that will follow after many free trade agreements(FTAs) are signed.
The Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade,along with the Vietnam Competition Authority and the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry held a training class for firms about the impactof FTAs on trade defence instruments on April 21.
Experts pointedout that technical barriers were non-tariff measures that had beenerected to protect domestic production. However, the technical barrierscould not impede trade and must be compliant with establishedcommitments.
When the impending FTAs took effect, foreignproducts would flow strongly into Vietnam and technical barriers mightbe an effective measure to deal with this in the short term, expertssaid.
The use of trade defence instruments, includinganti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguards, had grown popular in ASEANcountries during the last four years.
Experts said firms couldfile lawsuits if they found signs of dumping or subsidies, which coulddamage the imported countries' production, adding that it was importantthat firms collaborate with each other.
During internationalintegration, experts said lawsuits related to trade defence againstVietnam's export products were growing, but domestic firms had not paidenough attention to trade defence instruments to protect their rights.
Statisticsof the Vietnam Competition Authority showed that Vietnam had facedabout 80 lawsuits under the World Trade Organisation's trade defenceprovisions between 1994 and October last year.-VNA