VietNamNet talked with Trinh Anh Tuan, head of MOIT’s Trade Remedy Department about the US’s move.

Could you please tell us how the CCR review process will recognize Vietnam as a market economy? How long will the process take?

On September 8, 2023, MOIT filed a dossier with the US Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Trade Defense Electronic Information Portal – ACCESS, requesting the agency to initiate CCR to recognize Vietnam as a market economy within the framework of the first anti-dumping administrative review on bee honey from Vietnam.

Under the US law, DOC has 45 days to consider initiating CCR.

On October 23, 2023, DOC officially initiated CCR to grant the market economy status to Vietnam. Involved parties will have 30 days from the date of publication of the information on Federal Register (October 30) to submit comments (November 29, 2023 is the deadline) and the next 14 days to submit critical comments (December 13, 2023). 

Under the procedures for CCR, unless the case is extended, DOC will have 270 days from the date of initiation to complete the administrative review and issue final conclusions (slated for July 26, 2024).

What are your comments about the US’s move after Vietnam’s high-ranking officials repeatedly requested the US’s recognition of Vietnam as a market economy?

The US decision on initiating CCR to consider granting the market economy status to Vietnam is a positive move which shows goodwill towards Vietnam.

However, the CCR will have to go in accordance with the US laws and the process will require the participation of the government of Vietnam, institutions, individuals, associations and related businesses. 

The current conditions are favorable for Vietnam to obtain market status recognition. Seventy-two countries have recognized Vietnam as a market economy, including the UK, Canada, Australia and Japan. Many countries have praised Vietnam’s active integration into the world’s economy. 

Vietnam has signed over 90 bilateral free trade agreements and 60 agreements on investment encouragement and protection. Vietnam has been the signatory of 16 free trade agreements (FTAs) with the participation of 60 economies. Of these, 15 FTAs have taken effect and one new FTA has been signed. Vietnam is negotiating for three other FTAs.

These include new-generation FTAs, such as CPTPP (The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) and EVFTA (EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement), which meet high standards in some traditional fields, such as goods and services, and new fields such as labor, environment, government procurement, transparency, and the mechanism for handling investment disputes and state-owned enterprises.

What has MOIT done to accelerate the process of the US recognizing Vietnam as a market economy?

To recognize a market economy, the US will consider six criteria based on the laws on macro economy and business environment of the country, including currency conversion level; salary and wage negotiations between employees and employers; level of foreign investment in economic activities; state ownership and private ownership; extension of government control over certain resources and prices; and other factors.

In 2008, Vietnam and the US established SIWG (Structural Issues Working Group) and the two sides have organized 10 technical sessions so far to exchange information about the six criteria, helping the US update the significant progress of Vietnam’s economy, so as to lay down a premise for the US to reconsider the economy status of Vietnam.

MOIT has joined forces with ministries, branches, associations and business communities to provide and analyze information as per DOC’s request on the positive changes of Vietnam’s economy, with the focus on the openness level of the economy, trade policy, monetary policy, foreign investment and the improvements in global integration.

MOIT has also been building arguments to respond, explain, clarify or reject the opinions of other stakeholders on Vietnam's market economy.

The US is still the country that initiates the highest number of investigations against imports from Vietnam and applies the highest number of remedy measures. Will the situation change after Vietnam is recognized as a market economy?

The recognition of Vietnam’s market economy status is of great significance in the context of Vietnam’s increases in exports to the US (export turnover was $109.39 billion in 2022).

As Vietnam is not considered a market economy, the countries raising anti-dumping investigations use production costs of a third country to calculate the dumping margin. The dumping margins are always very high, which doesn’t truly reflect Vietnam’s production in reality.

Phan Chi Hieu