The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has released the preliminary results of its 20th administrative review (POR 20) of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen fish fillets exported from Vietnam to the US for the period between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023.

According to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in this review, eight Vietnamese export companies were involved, with the DOC selecting two of them as mandatory respondents.

Under the preliminary conclusion, the two mandatory respondents receive an anti-dumping duty rate of 0.00 USD/kg. The remaining six companies qualify for separate duty rates, set at 0.00 USD/kg. The nationwide rate remains unchanged at 2.39 USD per kg, as the petitioners withdrew their request to review this rate.

The authority noted that since the US has not recognised Vietnam as a market economy, the DOC continues to use surrogate values from third countries to calculate Vietnam's dumping margins.

In this review, the DOC selected Indonesia as the surrogate country, based on the reasoning that its level of economic development is comparable to Vietnam's, it has major pangasius producers similar to those in Vietnam during the review period, and its surrogate data is reliable for assessing Vietnam's production factors.

The authority assessed the preliminary results as positive for Vietnamese pangasius exporters, as all eight companies under review received a duty rate of 0,00 USD/kg, which is lower than the final rates from the previous review that ranged from 0,00 USD/kg to 0,18 USD/kg. The final conclusion for this review is expected to be issued by the DOC within 120 days from the date of the preliminary conclusion.

The DOC has also notified relevant parties that they may submit requests for POR 21 covering the period from August 1, 2023, to July 31, 2024. Several Vietnamese companies and US petitioners have already done so, and the DOC is considering to initiate the next administrative review in October 2024./.VNA