The World Trade Organisation (WTO) on November 17 announced the panel’s final decision on Vietnam ’s lawsuit against the US imposition of anti-dumping tax on its certain warm-water frozen shrimp, known as case DS/429.
The panel considered 11 contents in Vietnam ’s claims and issued rulings on seven of them which are considered conducive to the Vietnamese side, especially in administrative proceedings and dumping margins.
Under the US Department of Commerce (DOC)’s decision reached during its 8 th period of review from February 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013, the nation-wide level of tariff on imported frozen Vietnamese shrimp still stood at 25.76 percent, the same level as the past seven review periods.
A year ago, DOC declared that Vietnamese exporters did not involve in dumping practice and imposed zero percent on their products.
During the year, the Vietnamese permanent mission to the United Nations, the WTO and international organisations in Geneva also asked for the establishment of a panel on case DS/429 which was approved by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).
Later, it requested a review of the implementation of the DSB’s ruling on the similar case DS/404 and made claims with respect to the DOC's use of the “simple zeroing” methodology, the assignment of a rate to the non-market economy-wide entity, and the sampling of Vietnamese shrimp imports.
In the DS/404 case, the panel voiced support for two out of three issues raised by Vietnam and demanded the US government align its regulations with the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement and the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, saying that the zeroing methodology is inappropriate to the WTO regulations and should be banned.
Since the DS/404 case was launched, the Vietnamese mission has asked the US side to abide by the panel’s ruling and revise laws on the calculation of anti-dumping margins. (VNS)