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Local exports at grave risk of a US duty petition
There is a risk of a countervailing duty petition filed by the US against Vietnamese exports.
Jay L. Eizenstat, a Miller & Chevalier lawyer who was a former customs affairs director at the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office in Washington, said it was only a matter of time before the Department of Commerce (DoC) accepted a countervailing duty (CVD) petition involving Vietnamese exports by applying a precedent achieved following a suit against China Coated Free Paper.
Prior to 2007, the DoC refused to apply US countervailing duty law to petitions involving goods exported from non-market economies (NMEs), including China and Vietnam. However, in a groundbreaking 2007 case involving Coated Free Sheet Paper, the DoC abandoned its long history of refusing to pursue CVD cases against NMEs and in so doing, ushered in a new era in US’ CVD practice intended to respond to the trade distortion impacts of inconsistent World Trade Organization (WTO) subsidy practices.
Since the 2007 Coasted Free Sheet Paper case, petitioners have successfully filed nine CVD petitions against China. “The prospect of a second US trade remedy law becoming applicable to Vietnamese exports is something that should concern the government of Vietnam, Vietnamese industry associations and Vietnamese exporters and manufacturers,” Eizenstat said.
The DoC’s 2007 decision and the subsequent CVD petitions involving goods exported from China suggest that the DoC may accept and investigate CVD claims involving Vietnamese exports. Current US economic conditions portend a rise in trade remedy filings and it was a matter of time before a US industry sought import relief from Vietnamese products and asked the DoC to extend the Coated Free Sheet Paper from China precedent and apply the CVD law to Vietnam, he said.
“The Vietnamese government needs to be proactive and anticipate the DoC’s analysis and identifying subsidies,” said Eizenstat. Eizenstat also warned that the US was likely to continue its monitoring programme against textile and apparel imports from Vietnam which expired last year. “There is considerable pressure from domestic textile and apparel interests and among some members of Congress to re-institute the US Commerce Department textile monitoring programme on China and Vietnam,” Eizenstat said.
He said while imports of Chinese textile and apparel were already being tracked by the International Trade Commission following a request last year by representative Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, scrutiny on textile and apparel imports from China and Vietnam were expected to increase.
The Conference Report to the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 calls on the DoC’s International Trade Administration to: “Undertake apparel import monitoring from China and Vietnam and whether their state-run industries are illegally pricing products and dumping in the US market.”
“As a result of this language in the conference report, in the very near future, I would expect the secretary of commerce to re-institute the apparel monitoring programme on China and Vietnam,” Eizenstat said.
Deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association Nguyen Son said there was a high possibility that the US would extend its monitoring programme on textile and apparel imports from Vietnam. He said the programme would double the difficulties the industry faced given the ongoing economic downturn.
Regarding the likely CVD lawsuit, a senior Ministry of Industry and Tade official said since becoming a full WTO member, Vietnam had fully implemented its commitments. He said there had been more than 30 anti-dumping lawsuits against Vietnamese exports.
“Although no CVD cases against Vietnamese products have been filed, it is necessary for Vietnamese exporters to be cautious so as to avoid and prevent other countries from abusing their trade remedies or protectionism against Vietnamese products,” said the official.
VietNamNet/VIR
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