Bags of sugar displayed for sale at a supermarket in Bangkok.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on Tuesday issued a decision to investigate the evasion of trade remedies for cane sugar products originating from Thailand after considering requests from domestic sugar producers.

The ministry said it has received the petition of the Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) and domestic cane sugar refineries, which submitted evidence that Thai cane sugar products subject to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes have entered the Vietnamese market through five ASEAN countries of Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar.

The MoIT officially imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on a number of sugar cane products originating from Thailand on June 15, 2021.

Data of local customs agencies shows that the volume of sugar imported from the five above-mentioned ASEAN countries had increased sharply to 527,200 tonnes from 107,600 tonnes after Viet Nam initiated an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into sugar from Thailand from October 2020 to June 2021.

Meanwhile, the import volume from Thailand has decreased by nearly 38 per cent, from 955,500 tonnes to 595,000 tonnes in the period.

The MoIT has actively coordinated with the VSSA to monitor the import of cane sugar products and actively consulted and assisted the VSSA, as well as the domestic cane sugar industry, in collecting information and data and making a petition to request an investigation into this behaviour.

Source: VNS