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By the end of December 2022, Vietnam's export goods are the subject of 227 investigation cases related to trade remedies.

The trend of trade protectionism is getting stronger and stronger

Information in the Trade Remedies Annual Report 2022 has just been announced by the Trade Remedies Administration (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

According to the report, global trade reached about $ 25 trillion in 2019, then decreased by about $ 2.5 trillion in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. As demand recovers, the value of trade will increase by $5.5 trillion by 2021, to about $28 trillion. Global trade grew to a record $32 trillion by the end of 2022, up about 26% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Along with that, in recent years, the world has witnessed a global economic recession due to the impact of the epidemic and in 2022, global trade will continue to grow at a slower rate when the Ukraine conflict broke out and shows no sign of ending. This leads to the trend of trade protection taking place stronger than ever. Trade protection policy can take many forms, of which tariffs are the main measure used.

According to WTO statistics, since its establishment (1995) to the end of December 2022, there are 7,665 trade remedy cases initiated for investigation worldwide, but only 5,074 cases lead to investigations. to apply trade remedies.

According to the WTO, there are currently three commonly used trade remedy tools: anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard. Among the three measures mentioned above, anti-dumping measures were initiated to investigate the most, with 6,582 cases, accounting for 86% of the total number of trade remedy cases initiated by WTO members. Meanwhile, the number of cases of applying anti-subsidy and safeguard measures was 671 cases (accounting for 9%) and 412 cases (accounting for 5% of total initiated cases).

Some commodities are subject to safeguard measures by WTO members, including: live animals (9 cases); agricultural products (14 crops); animal and vegetable fats, oils and waxes (1 crop); processed foods, beverages, spirits, vinegar and tobacco (17 cases); mineral products (2 crops); chemical products (36 crops); plastic products, plastics, rubber (8 seasons); hides, skins, saddles (1 case); wood and wood products, storage baskets (3 crops); paper, paperboard (6 cases); textile products (17 crops); shoes, hats, feathers (3 cases); products of stone, plaster, ceramic products, porcelain, glass (15 seasons); metal products (55 crops); machinery and electrical equipment (13 cases); vehicles, aircraft and ships (3 cases); tools (2 cases); other items (3 cases).

"The products subject to safeguard measures are relatively diverse, not focusing mainly on a specific product such as anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures," the report stated.

Along with the growth of export turnover in the past time, Vietnam's export goods continue to face many cases of investigation and application of trade remedies by foreign countries, especially foreign trade remedies. case of investigation against evasion of trade remedies.

By the end of December 2022, Vietnam's export goods were the subject of 227 investigation cases related to trade remedies. Particularly in 2022, there are 17 new cases initiated by foreign countries, in addition to many cases under investigation, or subject to annual review, mid-term/end-term review, review of new exporters.

Need a total measure

Although the biggest cause of the increase in anti-circumvention investigations is trade protectionism, there are other causes such as lack of knowledge about trade remedy laws. In general as well as the law on anti-circumvention of trade remedy measures in particular of Vietnamese enterprises, there is a lack of information on current trade remedy cases, chasing immediate profits...

In addition, there may be some particular enterprises taking advantage of investment policies and trade facilitation policies for export products to commit trade frauds.

Therefore, the management agencies need to take comprehensive and long-term measures to minimize the number of cases of Vietnamese goods being investigated for evading trade remedies as well as the negative impact that these cases have. This is caused to Vietnam's exports, preventing Vietnam from being used as a transit point to export goods to a third country...

According to the report, Vietnam has successfully handled many foreign trade remedy investigation cases by proving that enterprises are not dumping, the Government does not subsidize businesses, the Government does not interfere in market to create unfair advantages for exporters, proving that exporters do not have acts of evading trade remedies being applied to third countries. Thanks to such results, exporting enterprises are not subject to trade remedy duties, tax orders are lifted or tax is imposed at low rates, contributing to maintaining and expanding export markets.