VietNamNet Bridge – The US Department of Commerce's final rule
on the fish fillets anti-dumping issue is an unlawful and politically motivated
decision to levy punitive duty rates on Vietnamese fish exporters in excess of
100 per cent.
The statement was made by the
Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) in its website
on March 20.
VASEP said this radical departure
from eight years of legal precedent relates to the use of a new surrogate
country, Indonesia, to value the inputs of raw materials used in fish
processing.
As Viet Nam is considered to be a
"non-market economy" by the US Government, the US DOC uses third
country prices to value Vietnamese inputs.
Indonesia has been rejected in
prior reviews due to its poor data quality and lack of viable financial
statements. DOC itself declared that Indonesia is not "economically
comparable" to Viet Nam for the majority of months covered by the review
period and then barred Viet Nam from citing this on the basis that it was
"new information."
In the final results, DOC based
its valuation of whole live fish prices - the primary input in the fish fillet
case - on one Indonesian government pricing study which showed radical
fluctuations in pricing and was not based on actual prices, but on calculated
national averages from a handful of districts.
DOC engineered this punitive
result after intense political lobbying on behalf of the US domestic industry,
the Catfish Farmers of America (CFA). There was no attempt to hide the multiple
high-level meetings and lobbying efforts made on behalf of the CFA directly to
DOC, VASEP said.
The decision has drawn into
question the fairness of the process and the alleged neutrality of the DOC
decision-makers.
The Directorate of Fisheries
Deputy Director General Pham Anh Tuan said that Viet Nam had voiced its strong
opposition to the US Department of Commerce's decision to choose Indonesia as
the sole reference country to calculate the anti-dumping rate on Viet Nam's tra
fish, saying that it would bring the case to the US Court of International
Trade.
"It is unfair for the
department to replace Bangladesh with Indonesia as the reference country to
calculate the anti-dumping tax levels on Viet Nam's imported tra fish as Viet
Nam and Indonesia do not share similarities in comparable social-economic
conditions, pricing and financial data, or have comparable subjects or fish
species," Tuan said.
According to Tuan, the
directorate's members and their lawyers will use these three differences as a
legal foundation to file their responses to the lawsuit.
To avoid such a case, the
official suggested that in the department's next administrative review, Viet
Nam should take a hard line on the US' selection of the third reference country
to value Vietnamese tra fish inputs on the basis of the most appropriate
criteria.
He also called on domestic
farmers, processors and exporters, especially those subject to the new
decision, to stay calm to solve the issue, while drawing up marketing plans to
move into emerging markets other than traditional channels like the US.
Vietnamese respondents have fully
co-operated with DOC through multiple on-site verifications and the filing of
full and complete responses and data over a period of nearly 18 months.
For the past eight years, DOC has
consistently used Bangladesh to value Vietnamese fish inputs, continually
rejecting the Philippines and Indonesia due to the poor quality of the pricing
data, the lack of publicly available financial data, and the fact that these
countries have no exports to other countries.
No material changes had been made
to these facts in this review.
Bangladesh is farming Pangasius
Hypophthalmus (catfish) in ponds similar to Viet Nam and producers in the two
countries share reasonably comparable production costs and revenues, while
Indonesia farms five different catfish species.
This has caused VASEP to claim
there isn't even any specific data in Indonesia's output of Pangasius
Hypophthalmus.
DOC continued to follow this
well-reasoned policy even through the most recent new shipper review, published
only a few weeks ago.
There was no recorded evidence in
the 8th review that Indonesia had improved its position as a viable surrogate
country or that the data was any more reliable.
We must therefore believe that
domestic politics played a very obvious role in this decision, VASEP said.
The final duty rates for the
reviewed companies - although not effective until an ultimate determination is
made - average between US$0.19 per kilo and $1.34 per kilo, with all other
separate rates companies receiving a $0.77 per kilo duty rate.
These exceed 100 per cent in
additional duties, effectively barring the reviewed Vietnamese exporters from
the US market and are punitive, not remedial, the organisation added.
VASEP, together with individual
fish exporters and the relevant trade remedy bureaus of the Vietnamese
Government, are studying all options in addressing this punitive result and its
legality under US law and the WTO. Furthermore, there will be a comprehensive
review of its impact on bilateral relations.
In 2012, Viet Nam exported tra
fish to 142 countries and territories, earning $1.74 billion in revenue,
according to VASEP.
Exports to the US brought home
$358 million, over 20 per cent of the country's total export revenue, said the
association.
Apart from the US, Vietnamese
exporters are reaching out to new markets in Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth
of Independent States and Mediterranean countries.
Outrage over "unfair"
duties
The US Department of Commerce (DOC)'s recent decision to impose
anti-dumping duties on Viet Nam's tra fish is unfair and biased, said Luong
Thanh Nghi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman at the ministry's regular
press conference in Ha Noi yesterday, March 21.
"We have time and again stated that Vietnamese businesses have not
dumped tra fish - or other seafood products – in the US and request DOC not
apply anti-dumping duties to any of Viet Nam's seafood products," he said.
"We believe that the issue of trade relations between the two
countries needs to be considered in a fair, unbiased manner consistent with WTO
rules," Nghi said in conclusion.
Source: VNS
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