Government continues supporting steel industry in trade defense

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Anh Hong 10:04, 2018/01/19

Vietnam will continuously apply trade remedies in accordance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and signed free trade agreements’ commitments to protect legal interest of domestic steel producers against imported products in 2018.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), it will quickly prevent the fraud in the use of rolled steel in the domestic construction industry as some are using the product but declaring other kinds of steel to evade taxes.
Besides, the ministry will direct enterprises to actively monitor domestic and global market information closely to have appropriate business plans, aimed at enhancing the consumption of products and reducing inventory.

The industry and trade ministry will quickly prevent the fraud in the use of rolled steel in the domestic market

Nguyen Van Sua, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), said that the association will work with the MoIT’s Vietnam Competition Authority and local steel firms to closely watch on cases related trade defense on steel products.
VSA has recently requested the MoIT to take measures to support steelmakers in tax evasion investigation initiated by the US for galvanized sheet steel and cold-rolled coils imported from Vietnam.
In case the US does not change its view, the association has recommended that the ministry asks the Government to consider litigation under the auspices of the WTO.
The new proposals are a response to the US Department of Commerce (DOC) deciding to impose anti-dumping measures and anti-subsidy rates on corrosion-resistant (CORE) and cold-rolled steel from Vietnam.
The case was initiated in September when US steel producers, including ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor Corp, AK Steel Holdings Corp and Steel Corp filed a formal complaint in which they claimed Chinese steel producers were shipping products via Viet Nam to evade tariffs.
In response, VSA said it expects the MoIT and its Vietnam Competition Authority to protest the DOC’s actions, which it said were inconsistent with international laws.
The ministry should ask the DOC to comply with WTO regulations as well as US law before issuing a formal decision on the tax evasion investigation, the association said.
The DOC has expressed its view that Chinese products were being dumped in third-party countries like Vietnam to circumvent import duties. Although the steel material was processed in Vietnam, the department agreed with the claims of American producers that as much as 90 per cent of the product’s value originated from China.
Vietnam exported more than one million ton of construction steel in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 62 per cent.
The total steel consumption in the country in 2017 is estimated at nearly 18 million tons, up 20.7 per cent compared to the previous year.
VSA forecast the steel industry to grow by 12-15 per cent in the next five years. Of which, cast iron output is forecast to increase 80 per cent to reach 4.5 million tons, while steel billets will jump 47.2 per cent (11.5 million tons), finished steel products up 12 per cent (20 million tons), cold rolled coils up 13 per cent and steel pipes up 15 per cent.

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