MoIT extends safeguard measures for steel products
MoIT extends safeguard measures for steel products
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has extended safeguard measures for steel billet and steel bars imported to Viet Nam until March 21, 2023, said the Trade Remedies Authority of Viet Nam. 
According to Decision 918/QD-BCT issued on Friday, the safeguard duty is 15.3 per cent for steel billet and 9.4 per cent for steel bars during the period from March 22, 2020 to March 21, 2021.
The tariff will be reduced to 13.3 per cent and 7.9 per cent for steel billet and steel bars, respectively, for the following year.
And they will continue falling to 11.3 per and 6.4 per cent in the period from March 22, 2022 to March 21, 2023.
The duty will decrease to zero per cent from March 22, 2023 if the ministry does not renew the safeguards.
Products subject to duty have the HS codes 7207.11.00; 7207.19.00; 7207.20.29; 7207.20.00; 7224.90.00; 7213.10.10; 7213.10.90; 7213.91.20; 7214.20.31; 7214.20.41; 7227.90.00; 7228.30.10 and 9811.00.00.
Countries and territories exempted from the safeguard duties are those in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean, and some in Europe, Central Asia and South Asia.
Domestic steel enterprises said the extension of safeguard measures would help them to overcome difficulties during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, toquoc.vn reported.
On the same day, the ministry also issued Decision 920/QD-BCT extended the application of measure for preventing evasion of safeguard duty to steel wire and rolled steel products imported to Viet Nam.
The anti-evasion tax rate for those products is 9.4 per cent applied from March 22, 2020 to March 21, 2021. This rate will be reduced to 7.9 per cent for the period from March 22, 2021 to March 21, 2022 and 6.4 per cent in the period from March 22, 2022 to March 21, 2023. It will be zero from March 22, 2023 if the ministry does not renew the measure.
