The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) is confident it has strong evidence to cope with the anti-subsidy lawsuit against Vietnamese shrimp just initiated by U.S. companies.
Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of VASEP, told the Daily right after a meeting of local shrimp processors and exporters on Monday that Vietnam has all proof to fight the accusation by the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries (COGSI) stateside.
“We should understand that disputes among companies in the same industry inside and outside the nation are unavoidable,” Hoe said after several local shrimp processors and exporters gathered together to seek solutions to cope with the anti-subsidy lawsuit that COGSI had filed to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) a few days earlier.
“If COGSI has evidence to persuade DOC to launch the anti-subsidy investigation, VASEP on behalf of local shrimp exporters will also have proof to show their accusation is not right,” he noted.
For instance, he analyzed, Vietnam now is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and subsidies for the local agricultural industry are all subject to the nation’s commitments with WTO.
The local steel industry had earlier faced similar accusations but industry insiders had proven that they had done business without illegitimate State financial assistance. This has encouraged the seafood industry to cope with COGSI, Hoe stated.
Agricultural subsidies and market prices are two different issues, he said, adding prices of Vietnamese shrimp imported into the States are decided by the market, not by local exporters.
If DOC accepts the lawsuit of COGSI and if VASEP members fail to show their innocence, Vietnamese shrimp will be slapped with an anti-subsidy tax rate of 12% stateside, Hoe told the Daily.
DOC will officially announce whether it accepts the case or not on January 17, so it is necessary for local shrimp exporters to anticipate the worst-case scenarios to find out solutions and to estimate budget to follow the case, if necessary, he added.