Surge in exports stateside sparks concerns over origin fraud
Surge in exports stateside sparks concerns over origin fraud
Up to 15 commodities saw export revenues from the U.S. market surging in the first half of this year, sparking concerns over frauds regarding the origins of products, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh.
At a meeting on August 9 with the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam, the minister said revenues from textile, steel and iron, animal feed and material, and electric cable exports to the United States rocketed 92.87%, 81%, 51% and 100%, respectively.
However, the imports of these products into Vietnam also soared during this period. Therefore, the minister warned local enterprises and management agencies about concerns over possible origin frauds.
He said the enforcement of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, and investigations against origin frauds from importing markets, has been a great challenge for Vietnam.
Meanwhile, local enterprises are vague about such trade remedies, indicating that communications between agencies and localities remains weak, Anh added.
He also urged enterprises to proactively learn about regulations on trade remedies and product origins of importing countries.
Le Trieu Dung, head of the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam, said that in the January-July period, the authority launched investigations into four anti-dumping cases, considered the documents submitted by three others and supervised the application of anti-dumping measures in two other cases.
These cases were mainly found in the steel, aluminum, wood and liquefied sugar sectors.
According to the authority, the application of trade remedies has helped protect jobs for more than 100,000 laborers, encouraged local production, and prevented some domestic firms from accruing losses.
The sectors protected by trade remedies contribute some 6.3% of the country’s gross domestic product and help raise State budget revenues.
However, the country has also been subject to multiple trade defense measures imposed by importing countries, Dung added.
