Local exporters have faced 39 anti-dumping investigations by the US and the European Union and were subsequently hit with antidumping taxes in 70 percent of the cases, heard a recent seminar.

Nguyen Thanh Thu, a member of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center, said the main reason for the anti-dumping measures was that the country’s exporters pushed their products too heavily in big markets with high trade growths.

The products hit by anti-dumping duties varied, ranging from tra and basa fish and shrimp in the US to upper-head leather shoes and bicycles in the EU and fluorescent lamps in India and Egypt.

Speaking at the seminar on EU and US anti-dumping regulations and practices on Wednesday, Thu said that many of the cases did not involve Vietnamese businesses as they were related to foreign firms operating in Vietnam after moving their factories from other countries facing anti- dumping duties.

James Lockett, a legal advisor for US government-supported STAR project, told the seminar exporters would be hit with more anti-dumping cases as the economic downturn pressed businesses to use any means necessary, including lawsuits, to defeat imported products.

STAR Vietnam is a project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide technical assistance to Vietnam in implementing its international trade commitments.