It is said that trade remedy measures (TRms) lawsuits are likely to increase in the future. According to a member from the Trade Remedies Council (TRC), the knowledge of businesses that face TRms lawsuits has improved but their capacity remains limited to cope with such lawsuits.

Businesses unaware of TRms on home turf

Anti-dumping measures in the current WTO rules have allowed member countries to use TRms when their imports have problems. However, in recent years, Vietnam’s trade balance has always been in deficit. Among products with a high import turnover, some products are dumped and subsidized by exporting countries’ governments.

When attempting to penetrate the Vietnamese market, foreign businesses take account of unhealthy competition practices including dumping, subsidies or taking advantage of opportunities to flood the Vietnamese market with imported goods. This can cause losses for Vietnamese businesses on their home turf. Therefore, businesses and associations need to be more active when applying legal measures under WTO regulations to raise their competitive capacity in the domestic market.

To protect their legitimate interests and ensure the survival and development of businesses in the domestic market when facing unhealthy competition from imported goods, Vietnamese businesses are entitled to ask State management agencies to investigate and apply TRms against imported goods. However, many Vietnamese businesses have not yet paid due attention to this option.

Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from the TRC says, “Countries can use TRms to cope with “abnormal” import cases but this does not mean that they can do this at any time their imports have problems. TRms can only be applied in specific conditions and circumstances in line with the WTO rules”. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses need to understand WTO regulations, added Mrs Trang.

According to a VCCI’s survey, 66 percent of businesses do not understand the basic content of WTO agreements and nearly 50 percent are not aware of Vietnam’s WTO commitments related to their products. However, if they study the legislation they can lodge a petition with the WTO to deal with disputes. This world body will then consider whether Vietnamese companies are charged with dumping or not and give a final decision.

"Vietnam has not yet used TRms to protect its domestic industries as other countries have done, although it has the necessary tools at its disposal," said Vu Ba Phu, Deputy Head of the Vietnam Competition Authority.

Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy lawsuits are when producers of imported products are sued for dumping on the markets of importing countries.

Some foreign experts say the products that face the most anti-dumping lawsuits are garments and textiles, footwear, chemicals, metal or products made of metal, plastics, rubber, farm products and paper pulp.

Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association (VITAS), Le Van Dao, says despite facing no anti-dumping lawsuits, the garment sector will have to research TRms to cope with any lawsuits in the future. In fact, many countries still lodge unfair or untrue lawsuits or apply supervisory measures. For that reason, garment businesses need to have necessary knowledge to settle disputes.

Mrs Trang emphasised that solidarity between businesses is strength and also a major lesson for international economic integration because TRms lawsuits affect the entire sector. So, the effort of a small number of businesses is not enough for the majority.

In addition, Vietnamese businesses need to get used to using professional legal services because most people or businesses can only understand some the regulations but not the complex WTO-related legal issues.

Many businesses in developed countries also don’t understand WTO regulations thoroughly but they well understand the WTO’s importance and characteristics so they use legal services when necessary.