VietNamNet Bridge – When will Vietnam have a lobbying organization in the US which can help protect Vietnamese goods from unreasonable taxations?

Vietnamese shrimp have been bearing two kinds of tax when entering the US market, while Thai and Indonesian don’t have to. Analysts have warned that in such circumstances, the US may impose unreasonable taxes on Vietnamese goods if it wants.

Under the latest decision of the US Department of Commerce, the Minh Quy Seafood Company, one of the two defendants, would bear the tax rate of 7.88 percent. The other defendant, Nha Trang Seafood Company, would be imposed 1.15 percent. The national tax rate to be applied to remaining Vietnamese exporters is 4.52 percent.

The countervailing duty lawsuit was raised by COGSI, a shrimp alliance in the US in late 2012 against the shrimp imports from seven countries. The plaintiff has doubts that the shrimp exporters receive unreasonable subsidy from their governments.

With the decision, Vietnamese shrimp not only bear the anti-dumping tax levied by the US DOC, but also a new unreasonable tax – CVD.

Analysts have commented that the lawsuit is really unreasonable, because COGSI represents the companies that exploit shrimp in the wild, while the import shrimps are farmed products.

It is obviously unfair for Vietnam to impose two kinds of tax on the same product. Meanwhile, Thailand and Indonesia don’t have to bear this kind of duty.

An overseas Vietnamese businessman has warned that not only shrimp, other farm produce could also be the subject to the unreasonable taxations to be imposed by the US.

He said the plaintiff may even cite nonsensical reasons to impose tax on Vietnamese products. If so, it would be very difficult for Vietnam to ask for justice to be done.

He has noted that the defendant would be put under a disadvantage if it does not have strong voice and influences in the US, though it may receive the support from some organizations in the US.

The problem lies in the fact that Vietnam still does not have its lobbying influence in the US. This explains why Vietnamese export items, from wooden furniture, footwear to seafood, have been imposed unreasonable taxes over the last over 10 years.

Nguoiduatin newspaper has quoted its sources as saying that by 2004, Vietnam and Laos had been the two only countries in South East Asia which had not spend money on lobbying activities. Meanwhile, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines had spent tens of thousands or millions of dollars on the activities in the US.

The Vietnam Textile and Garment Association (Vinatex) is believed to be the only organization which has registered with the US Congress for joining lobbying activities with the annual fee of no more than $10,000.

The sources said that in a shrimp case, Thailand had to spend $2 billion hiring US lobbying firms. In the lawsuit raised by SSA and LSA, it as believed to hire Dewey Ballantine law firm and use a series of others including Livingston, Jones Walker, Poievent & Denegre for the lobbying activities.

Tran Tuan Anh, former Vietnamese Consulate General in Francisco, once noted that without lobbying, Vietnam would not be able to protect the national and enterprises’ benefits.

Nguoi Dua Tin