The US Department of Commerce’s (DoC) recent 14 proposals to strengthen the nation’s antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) laws have created many challenges for foreign exporters, particularly the Vietnamese.

Many of the 14 proposals are related to investigation method and procedures applied to non-market economies like Vietnam. They are expected to put foreign exporters at a disadvantage and improve the competitiveness of the US businesses.

According to William H. Barringer of the US law firm Winston and Strawn LLP, the proposals are aimed at encouraging US businesses to take more action against foreign companies.

However, Mr. Barringer said, they should not negatively affect Vietnam’s economy, and this also shows that Vietnamese companies are achieving more success in the US market.

Mr. Barringer, who provided Vietnamese companies useful legal advice in the proceedings against the US anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese shrimp, said solidarity among businesses played a very important role in their success.

“Small-sized businesses shared the legal expenses, took part in training courses and joined hands to develop software for costing and pricing,” he said.

Another important thing, he said, is that businesses should anticipate which companies may be selected as individual respondents and find out whether they are following the procedures correctly.

The uncooperative individual respondents may lead to serious damage for the whole sector, said the lawyer, adding that the participation of all businesses from the beginning of the proceedings is crucial.

However, while Vietnamese businesses are seriously affected by anti-dumping tariffs abroad, FDI businesses in Vietnam usually do not pay attention to tariffs as they can close down their factories in Vietnam and move to another country.

Therefore, economic experts said Vietnam should introduce policies to make FDI and Vietnamese businesses to corporate in the lawsuit for mutual benefit and protection of rights.