(vasep.com.vn) Vietnam’s total export turnover in the first five months of 2012 has reached US$42.86 billion, up 24.1% over the same period last year. Some key items with positive turnover growth were textile and garment (sales of US$5.3 billion, up 7.7 percent over 2011); footwear (US$2.7 billion, up 14.3 percent); seafood (US$2.3 billion, up 11.7 percent).
EU is Vietnam’s largest market with import value of US$5.7 billion, making up 17.1 percent of the country’s total export turnover; followed by the U.S. with nearly US$5.7 billion, accounting for 16.9 percent, up 17.5 percent.
Predictably, the U.S. will still be the key and increasingly important market of Vietnam exporters.
However, export activities to the market always implicit risks. Vietnam enterprises must face difficulties in exporting to the U.S. because this is a strict market with a lot of complicated regulations. At the seminar “Proceeding against the U.S. Courts or the WTO to protect exports from the U.S. anti-dumping measures” held by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in May 24th in Hanoi, experts cited Vietnam as an example to gain initial success when the country proceeded against the U.S. which applying “zeroing” in calculating antidumping duty on exported Vietnam frozen shrimp (DS404 case). Vietnam enterprises and labors suffered a lot of losses from the case. Although WTO confirmed that Vietnam shrimp exporters didn’t dump their products and requested the U.S. should stop their anti-dumping treatment on Vietnam shrimp, until now the problem has not been solved, Vietnam enterprises still suffered losses in exporting shrimp to the market.
Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) actively set out action plans and urge support from Ministry of Industry and Trade to pursue the case at a higher level, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy General Secretary of VASEP said. He noted that shrimp is a leading export item in Vietnam’s seafood export structure. In 2011, shrimp exports fetched our country over US$2.1 billion.
If Vietnam wins WTO anti-dumping case against the U.S., it will create a precedent and confidence for the government to carry out other antidumping cases when domestic enterprises’ interests are affected. To win the case, Vietnam must be well-prepared because cases on trade are often complicated and must be in compliance with international regulations and laws, Lawyer William Barringer, who successfully advised many Vietnam enterprises in anti-dumping cases in the US, shared experiences in procedural issues confronting Vietnam shrimp exporters.
Global economic integration not only brings opportunities but also imposes challenges for exporters. The implementation of anti-dumping cases and trade barriers with an aim to protect domestic industries is increasingly popular in large markets.
Therefore, VCCI recommends that business community, particularly exporters should accelerate to cooperate and exchange market information and support each other to actively confront with cases from importers.