The Vietnam CompetitionAuthority (VCA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said the steelmanufacturers of mainland China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan (China)had shown signs of dumping their products in the Vietnamese market,bringing heavy losses to the domestic steel industry.
The duties on steel imports from these markets will be enforced fromOctober 5 onwards. According to the VCA, the tariffs, ranging from 3.07 –37.29 percent, will not harm importing companies or the domesticmarket.
During the workshop, Vice Chairman of theVietnam Steel Association Nguyen Van Sua said Vietnamese firms are infact capable of meeting the domestic stainless steel demand, but amajority of them are not working at full capacity due to fiercecompetition from imported products from these four economies.
Vietnamese enterprises have the right to request anti-dumpinginvestigations into foreign companies, which is an internationallylegitimate measure, he added.
Pham Chau Giang fromthe VCA said the imposition of anti-dumping taxes do not aim to protectdomestic production but rather create a fair competition environment.
The VCA said there have been approximately 100 tradecases against Vietnamese products in recent years, including just under50 anti-dumping cases. This year alone, the country faced a number ofanti-dumping cases, including those against oil pipes, bicycle tyres,and steel products.
Vietnamese companies themselves, however,have not paid much attention to trade remedy measures and rarelyincluded these in their business strategies, she said.
Sharing view with Giang, Sua said domestic steel firms are stillpassive in providing data and information to assist investigations. Heurged them to play a more active role in preparing files and cooperatingwith authorised agencies to protect their own interests.
Meanwhile, State bodies also need to improve their professional capacity to deal with trade disputes, he noted.-VNA