Part 1: Overcoming barriers in international trade relations

In fact, international trade shows that the higher the export growth, the bigger the danger of encountering trade barriers.

According to the Competition Administration Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), in early July, the Directorate-General for Trade at the European Commission (EC) informed Vietnamese agencies that the anti-dumping duty of 34.5 percent the EC imposed on Vietnam's bicycle exports since July 14, 2005 has been abolished as from July 15, 2010.

This is thanks to the effective coordination of associations, businesses, the media and state management agencies in collecting information about the difficulties that Vietnam's bicycle industry is facing. They then informed the European anti-dumping investigation agency that it can come to an unbiased and fair conclusion on the incident. This indicates that if there is a close and active coordination by anti-dumping investigation agencies, Vietnamese businesses can overcome trade barriers.

The Deputy Head of the Competition Control Department, Vu Ba Phu, said that to cope with investigations on anti-dumping and subsidies, exporting businesses need to cooperate with foreign investigation agencies.

Regarding investigations into whether or not Vietnam's PE plastic bags exported to the US market receive subsidies, Mr Phu said two of the investigated companies were foreign and one Vietnamese. From the beginning, Vietnam’s Tien Thinh Company has been a voluntary defendant and worked closely with lawyers. Meanwhile, the two foreign companies have failed to work with investigation agencies and even moved their factories to another country. As a result, Tien Thinh enjoyed a low tax rate of 0.44 percent due to its close cooperation with the investigation agencies while other companies suffered the higher tax rate of 52 percent.

Vietnamese businesses are confronted with numerous difficulties and challenges as trade barriers and unfair anti-dumping lawsuits have caused them great losses.

The former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Phan The Rue, says that to cope with such challenges, Vietnamese businesses need to have a thorough grasp of multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements and legal services to avoid problems when doing business with foreign partners.

Businesses should take legal advice from the beginning of any negotiations before signing contracts, and stick to the contract so if disputes occur, they will have a legal way of dealing with lawsuits, said Mr Rue.

In addition, they should get together to protect themselves when exporting their products.

The best way of dealing with technical barriers is to meet all the requirements before exporting products by strictly controlling technical conditions, and the quality and hygiene of each product.

Antonio Berenguer, a EU trade counsellor, said that when facing anti-dumping lawsuits, businesses must have the necessary documentation. They must do their utmost to prove their position and operate according to market mechanisms.

If control is compulsory it will cost businesses more money to follow these regulations but they will be fully protected. If control is optional some businesses may take advantage of this way and export low-quality products, which can lead the creation of barriers.

The best way of dealing with lawsuits is diversifying markets, not just focusing on one market, and increasing the export of high quality products. So it is very important for businesses to research the market and apply appropriate measures to prevent the situation going from bad to worse.