Businesses face many risks of trade defense investigations

 

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a new generation free trade agreement with extensive commitments in many economic and trade fields...

 

The implementation of the agreement over the past 5 years has helped expand markets, attract investment and bring competitive advantages to exports, but also puts Vietnamese businesses at risk of being investigated. trade defense measures.

 

In fact, the trend of using trade defense tools is increasing in CPTPP member countries. Trade defense investigation cases are not only more numerous in number, but also more complex in scale and more diverse in products.

 

At the Seminar on Limiting trade defense risks when increasing exports to the CPTPP market organized by Industry and Trade Magazine on November 27, Mr. Bui Tuan Hoan - Head of the Americas Department, European - American Market Department , the Ministry of Industry and Trade shared that there are 11 American countries participating in CPTPP: Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile. In particular, besides Chile, there is a bilateral FTA with Vietnam; Canada, Mexico and Peru are three markets that have FTA relations with Vietnam for the first time, so the tariff incentives in CPTPP have a very positive impact on Vietnam's export activities to these markets.

 

“It can be said that since the CPTPP Agreement came into effect for Vietnam in January 1, Vietnam's exports to CPTPP member countries in the Americas have grown strongly.” – Mr. Bui Tuan Hoan informed.

 

This is reflected in the fact that in 2021, exports to the four CPTPP countries in the Americas will reach more than 4 billion USD, especially Vietnam's trade surplus will reach 12 billion USD. Of which, exports to Canada reached 10,4 billion USD and increased by 5,3% compared to the time before the Agreement took effect.

 

Or for Mexico, exports to this market reached 4,6 billion USD, and increased over 105% compared to the time before the Agreement took effect.

 

Exports to Peru are similar, although the Agreement has just been ratified in 2021, it also reached 560 million USD, an increase of 85%. Chile, although it has not ratified the Agreement, also reached 1,7 billion USD, an increase of 63%. So, these are very impressive numbers.

 

According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, Vietnam's exports to CPTPP markets in the Americas in the first 9 months of 2023 reached 8,76 billion USD, down about 15% compared to the same period in 2022. Kim The decrease in quota is mainly in Vietnam's key export products such as textiles, footwear, seafood, wooden furniture...

 

Imports from CPTPP markets in the Americas in the first 9 months of 2023 also have a similar decrease of 15%, focusing mainly on machinery, fertilizer, iron, steel, and raw materials.

 

Mr. Phung Gia Duc, Deputy Head of the Department of Handling Foreign Trade Remedies - Department of Trade Remedies, said that for countries with FTAs in general and CPTPP in particular, the number of trade defense cases has increased dramatically. fast. The reason is that when businesses gain advantages and growth momentum from CPTPP in particular and FTA in general, it will increase Vietnam's export value to many new markets.

 

Because our goods are popular and highly competitive, it creates pressure on the domestic production industries of importing countries. From there, the domestic industry of the importing country wishes that the Government of the importing country applies trade restriction measures, the most common being measures on trade defense, anti-dumping, and anti-corruption measures. subsidies and self-defense.

 

"In addition to the first-time FTA countries with Vietnam such as Canada, Chile and Peru, there have been many CPTPP members investigating trade defense measures against Vietnam, such as Australia or Malaysia" - Mr. Phung Gia Duc shared.

 

That is, Australia has investigated up to 18 trade defense cases against Vietnam, equivalent to Canada and Malaysia also having over 10 cases; Mexico has 03 new cases and all arose after signing CPTPP.

 

Thus, this trend is inevitable and unavoidable. When exporting, businesses are participating in a global game and must accept that they will face trade defense barriers in the future.

 

Regarding goods, the most vulnerable and most susceptible to investigation are those that grow rapidly and strongly. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, items such as seafood, wood and wood products, steel, aluminum, textiles, chemicals... will be traditional products and are at risk of continuing to be sued for defense. future trade, even within CPTPP and other FTAs in general.

 

For businesses, Mr. Vu Van Phu - Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Aluminum Association shared that the aluminum industry has grown strongly in recent years and aluminum businesses are also making the most of it. The advantages of trade agreements, especially the CPTPP Trade Agreement with markets such as Canada, Japan and potential markets such as the Americas or Australia, South America... However, businesses in the industry also have to face trade remedy investigations.

 

Improve trade defense capacity for businesses

 

To respond to trade defense investigations that are becoming more and more common, Mr. Vu Van Phu, first, regarding industry associations, the Vietnam Aluminum Association continuously recommends that businesses need to Be proactive when being investigated, especially carefully prepare business data records.

 

As for state management agencies, the Association hopes that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, especially the Trade Defense Agency, will well maintain the Early Warning Center to provide information to businesses. Early information is very valuable and valuable information for businesses when being investigated for trade remedies.

 

In addition, the Association urgently needs support from the Americas - Europe Market Departments and trade counselors in CPTPP markets to connect supply and demand, promote trade for businesses and share information with others. businesses and industries so that businesses have more opportunities to expand their markets and avoid being dependent on a certain market when being investigated for trade remedies.

 

On the part of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Mr. Phung Gia Duc emphasized that he is aware of the issue of changes in international trade and the increasingly rapid growth of Vietnamese trade as businesses export more and more abroad. , the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been making efforts to promote solutions to support businesses in responding to trade remedies.

 

Specifically, for new markets, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has had specialized projects on trade defense, asking for the Prime Minister's opinion to establish projects for many years with a long-term view to popularize Access general knowledge about trade defense. In the coming years, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will limit target groups and conduct more in-depth awareness-raising training sessions so that businesses and business associations that do not have enough resources to research on their own can have opportunity to participate.

 

Second, in those projects, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also emphasizes regularly updating current legal regulations. One trend that has emerged in the past two years is the trend of investigating evasion of trade defense measures. This is an expanded measure to ensure that the effectiveness of the original trade defense measure is maintained and stable and Vietnam is also one of the subjects, one of the countries that is sued a lot.

 

“Future lawsuits will increase even more, and increase very quickly. Therefore, businesses need to regularly update issues related to legal changes in foreign markets. We also regularly hold trade defense dialogues with foreign investigation agencies to understand what they are investigating and how they are doing it. When there is mutual understanding and mutual dialogue, everything will be easier and businesses will also benefit a lot" - Mr. Phung Gia Duc emphasized.

 

Next, the Government of Vietnam will protect Vietnamese businesses but also resolutely prevent businesses from evading trade defense measures through importing or evading illegal origin, affecting affecting the reputation of Vietnamese businesses and exported goods.

 

Source: Vietnam.vn