Turn 'danger' into 'opportunity' before the 'storm' of the business world

Countries will tend to apply trade defense measures more and more, along with the complexity and scale of the cases.

The world situation continues to have many rapid and unpredictable fluctuations, significantly affecting domestic production and business activities. Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan - Director of the Department of Trade Defense ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ) - shared with the Industry and Trade Newspaper about the work of protecting Vietnamese goods in the global supply chain on the occasion of the Spring of At Ty 2025.

Barriers keep growing

How have Vietnamese goods faced challenges from the recent "storm" of defense from export markets due to the increasing protectionist trend, sir?

Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : In 2024, the number of trade defense investigations against Vietnamese exports increased significantly with a total of 28 cases. The United States alone accounted for nearly 50% of the total number of cases initiated. Trade defense investigations not only increased in number but also became more complicated as many countries investigated unprecedented new contents. For example, double investigations of the same product; the scope of investigated products is increasingly diverse, from high-value to low-value products.

Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan - Director of the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade)

In fact, the increasing application of trade defense measures by markets poses many challenges for Vietnam's export products due to the impacts of these measures. Specifically, Vietnamese enterprises face increased costs when having to devote more resources to participating in and handling trade defense investigations and meeting the requirements of foreign investigation agencies; the competitiveness of export enterprises is reduced when taxed, importers will be more hesitant to buy goods from Vietnamese enterprises compared to countries that are not subject to tax.

Another difficulty we still face is that we are still considered a non-market economy by some countries, which often causes foreign investigation agencies to use foreign surrogate values ​​to calculate dumping and subsidy margins for Vietnamese enterprises. This often pushes up anti-dumping and subsidy tariffs, putting enterprises at a disadvantage compared to countries that are not considered non-market economies.

Defend early and from afar

Facing a lot of pressure from investigations, however, with the motto "prevent early, from afar", early warning work has contributed to protecting export goods in the global supply chain. What do you think about this issue?

Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : Implementing the policy of "early prevention, from afar", the Trade Defense Department has established and operated an early warning system to monitor, collect and analyze data on Vietnamese export products at risk of being investigated by foreign countries and having trade defense measures applied.

The Trade Defense Department also uses information sent from a system of more than 60 trade offices in major export markets related to risks, possibilities of trade defense investigations, and conflicts between our export goods and goods in the host market.

Currently, the Department is monitoring the fluctuations of more than 300 Vietnamese export products to markets with high frequency of trade defense investigations. In addition, the Department also promotes the dissemination of regulations on origin and trade defense regulations to businesses to prevent from the beginning acts of declaring inaccurate information and aiding acts of origin fraud and illegal transshipment.

Along with strengthening early warning, as the focal point for management and work in trade defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has deployed a series of other drastic measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese enterprises. Thanks to that, it has supported export enterprises to handle and terminate nearly 50% of foreign-initiated trade defense cases, and many cases in 2024 achieved positive results.

New challenges

Trade defense is a tool allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for members to use to ensure fair competition. Can you name some trends in trade defense investigations in 2025?

Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : The world situation continues to have many rapid and unpredictable changes, which will create a new context for global trade defense. Therefore, countries will tend to apply more and more trade defense measures, along with that, the complexity and scale of the cases will also increase.

And some investigation trends that can be mentioned are: Countries applying new legal regulations to increase applicable tax rates, through the use of regulations on non-market economies, special market situations; more stringent requirements and demands on procedures when participating in trade defense cases...

The Trade Defense Department will continue to accompany Vietnamese enterprises in trade defense investigations. Photo: THS

In that context, the Trade Defense Department will continue to accompany Vietnamese enterprises in trade defense investigations to ensure the highest benefits for the Vietnamese business community. At the same time, the Department will continue to research, review and perfect Vietnam's trade defense laws to ensure they meet practical requirements, are consistent, appropriate and consistent with international commitments.

Promoting recognition of Vietnam as a market economy

The promotion of recognition of Vietnam as a market economy is expected to contribute to limiting trade remedies against Vietnam's export goods. What do you think about this work in 2025?

Mr. Trinh Anh Tuan : Promoting a country to recognize Vietnam as a country with a market economy does not, in essence, deprive domestic producers in the importing country of the right to request the investigating agency to initiate an investigation to apply trade defense measures. However, promoting a country to recognize Vietnam as a country with a market economy will help Vietnamese exporting enterprises to be treated more equally in anti-dumping/anti-subsidy investigations when the dumping/subsidy margin is calculated based on the enterprise's own production cost instead of using the production cost of another country as a "substitute value". This can make the anti-dumping/anti-subsidy tax rate lower and more closely reflect the actual production and business situation of Vietnamese enterprises.

Accordingly, the Trade Defense Department will continue to strengthen research, consultation, and propose cooperation options and methods to promote countries to consider recognizing Vietnam as a market economy. Specifically, implementing the Prime Minister's direction, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is developing a research plan to promote a number of countries to recognize Vietnam as a market economy in trade defense cases in the period of 2024-2030, focusing on countries with domestic laws regulating market economies or variations of market economies, and are also important trade partners of Vietnam.

Thank you!

Source: https://congthuong.vn/phong-ve-thuong-mai-bien-nguy-thanh-co-truoc-bao-thuong-truong-371557-371557.html