confirmed that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) increase in its
antidumping tariff on Vietnam’s tra (Pangasius) fish runs counter to the
letter and spirit of the free trade agreements between Vietnam and the
US.
In an open letter sent to the Vietnamese
Government and the US Ambassador in Vietnam on Sept. 16, VASEP expressed
indignation and concern over DOC’s preliminary antidumping duty rates
in the sixth administrative review applied to Vietnam’s tra frozen
fillets exported to the US.
The duty rates are
in excess of 100 percent, far exceeding any prior rates in this unfair
dumping case lasting more than eight years, and clearly amounting to a
punitive tariff on Vietnamese fish fillet exports, said the association.
According to VASEP, the calculated dumping rates cannot be supported by the evidence and data submitted for this review.
VASEP expressed its particular concern at DOC’s unjustified change in
the surrogate country used to value raw material inputs, sudden
switching from Bangladesh to the Philippines after consistently
rejecting the Philippines in all prior administrative reviews due to the
poor quality of the pricing data, the lack of publicly available data,
the extremely small size of the Philippine catfish industry, and the
fact that the Philippines has not exported products of this fish
species.
VASEP said it believed the results are
politically motivated, coming after significant recent lobbying efforts
by the Catfish Farmers of America (CFA).
VASEP
and individual fish processors/exporters requested the Vietnamese
Government undertake a comprehensive review of the harmful impacts of
DOC’s determination and urge DOC and the administration of the US
to carefully reassess this decision, not allowing it to have a bad
influence on the well-developing bilateral relations between the two
nations.
At a press briefing in Hanoi on Sept.
17, VASEP Vice President Nguyen Huu Dung said the association and
Vietnam’s tra fish businesses will protect the industry by taking
essential legal action to request DOC to change the results of the sixth
administrative review which are expected to be issued in March 2011 in
accordance with the US law and the WTO agreement.
VASEP and businesses are striving to complete practical data on tra
fish prices and evidence proving Vietnam did not dump its tra fish in
the US market in order to send this information to the US next
month.
Both sides are expected to discuss the issue at a meeting slated for November this year.
VASEP has also sent two of the biggest tra fish exporters – Vinh Hoan
and Hung Vuong – to the US to meet US lawyers for consultation on
this disputed determination.
According to VASEP,
Vietnam’s tra fish export value is estimated at 1 billion
USD in the first nine months of the year and 1.5 billion USD for the
whole year, with the US being the second biggest tra fish consumer,
after the EU./.
