Vietnamese exports have been subject to an increasing number of protectionist measures overseas, and most of the trade-defense lawsuits have been filed against Vietnamese iron and steel exports, officials said.

Steel is seen at a storehouse. Vietnam’s steel exports have been subject to the most anti-dumping lawsuits 

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, director of the WTO Center under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said on June 25 that Vietnamese goods have faced 107 trade-defense lawsuits in other countries, including 78 anti-dumping cases, 12 anti-subsidy cases and 17 anti-tax-evasion cases.

Of the 78 anti-dumping lawsuits, 37 cases are related to iron and steel exports, or nearly half of the total, while three-fourths of the anti-subsidy lawsuits have been filed against these products as well.

As for anti-tax-evasion lawsuits, enterprises in importing countries claim Vietnamese exports are being produced in third countries that are subject to higher anti-dumping taxes than Vietnam. Up to 16 of these 17 cases have been brought by manufacturers in importing markets, who believe Chinese goods have been exported to Vietnam before being shipped to their countries.

Most of the lawsuits have been filed by manufacturers in the United States, India, Turkey, Australia and the European Union. Recently, producers and associations in Indonesia and other regional countries have also petitioned for investigations into Vietnamese exports, Trang added.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has issued only three anti-dumping lawsuits against steel exporters from China, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan and has slapped high duties on these products.

The country has also filed six other lawsuits against imported steel, fertilizer, monosodium glutamate, vegetable oil and float glass products to protect domestic production.

SGT