Vietnam firms urged to increase trade safeguard knowledge
With competition anticipated from imported products, given the country's deeper integration into the global economy, businesses are being urged to enhance their awareness of trade defence instruments.
Despite being allowed under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, the instigation and infliction of trade defence instruments, including anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard by Vietnamese firms remained modest.
At a meeting on October 14, organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, director of the VCCI's WTO Centre, revealed that Vietnamese export products encountered dozens of lawsuits in foreign markets.
In comparison, Vietnam initiated only four lawsuits against imported products so far, three of which related to safeguards and one had to do with anti-dumping.
A survey implemented by the VCCI with the participation of more than 1,000 businesses showed that about 70 % of firms said they knew trade defence instruments were tools to protect them from unhealthy competition.
However, Trang said the knowledge of Vietnamese firms about trade defence remained at the primary level.
In addition, there were limitations in the capacity and lack of experience of businesses as well as investigation agencies, which hindered the application of trade defence instruments, Trang said.
Findings showed that 86 % of surveyed firms said they would encounter with difficulties in raising financial resources for filing lawsuits, while merely 2 % did not see expense as a big problem.
Trang said that currently only big companies were capable of following up with lawsuits while small firms were those which were heavily impacted by unhealthy competition.
"This means that trade defence instruments still fail to protect rights and benefits of small firms," she said.