Recently, the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the final conclusion of the investigation regarding evading anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures with cold-rolled steel (CRS) and Vietnam's corrosion-resistant steel (CORE) with materials from Korea and Taiwan-China (Taiwan).
With this conclusion, shipments of CRS and CORE steel exported from Vietnam do not prove the origin of hot rolled steel materials to be imposed a tax rate of up to 456%.
In case enterprises prove that hot rolled raw materials imported from Korea or Taiwan will be subject to South Korea's corresponding taxes (29.4% for CORE steel; 24.2% for CRS steel) and Taiwan (10.34% for CRS steel).
Therefore, if enterprises can prove that their production materials are from Vietnam or countries/territories outside the above three sources, they will not be subject to tax evasion (ie, no tax payment).
Immediately after it was published many opinions suggested that this decision would significantly affect Vietnam's steel export activities.
Facing this problem, the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) said that right from the beginning of the US decision to initiate the investigation (August 2018), VSA cooperated with the State Agency, working with lawyers in the US and in Vietnam, as well as export businesses to clarify information and to suggest that the domestic manufacturing industry fully cooperates with US investigation agencies.
In addition, the Association also proposed the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to directly discuss and request DOC to consider and create conditions for enterprises to participate in providing information, expanding the scope of business to self-certify the origin of raw materials to protect the legitimate interests of the domestic manufacturing industry, and coordinating with the relevant authorities of Vietnam and the US to prevent fraudulent acts and illegal evading.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also participated in hearings organized by the DOC to express its views and hold meetings with the DOC to clarify Vietnam's proposal.
With the US imposing a terrible tax of 456% on Vietnam steel, VSA said that as soon as receiving the information to initiate the investigation, the domestic steel industry, especially large manufacturing and exporting enterprises have also proactively developed production and business plans in the context of US anti-evasion investigations, in particular, have switched to using input materials (hot-rolled steel) from many other sources as well as buying domestically produced hot rolled steel, building management systems for self-certification. This will help Vietnamese businesses minimize risks when exporting to this market and diversify export markets.
Facing this situation, the Association recommends businesses to improve their competitiveness by applying modern technology and cost savings; actively using domestic raw materials, or purchasing raw materials from other countries such as Japan, Brazil, Austria, Belgium, ... to produce steel products for export to the US, to minimize risks. At the same time, businesses need to diversify export markets; closely coordinate with the Association and foreign partners' partners; continue and cooperate to provide information with DOC, ...
According to the statistics of the Trade Information Center (Ministry of Industry and Trade), in the first 10 months of 2019, the value of Vietnam's CORE and CRS exports to the US to the US was more than 353 thousand tons with more than 260 million USD, down 56% in volume and decreased by 58% in export value compared to the same period in the first 10 months of 2018. The US market currently accounts for 6.5% of Vietnam's total steel exports (ASEAN is still the largest export market of Vietnam, accounting for 65%).
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