As part of its plan, management offices will create comprehensive procedures to prevent steel exporters from non-ASEAN countries committing fraud.

For steel products from ASEAN countries, local offices will closely supervise customs clearing for importers.

The association also put forward regulations to verify all steel products and checks should be made by independent supervisors at ports before being delivered to Vietnam.

These solutions were proposed by the association after it found that steel importers manipulated confusing regulations to enjoy a zero import tax rate on some steel products.

They cited the example of wire rods containing Boron imported from china. This was considered an alloy steel when imported to Vietnam, which meant it could claim a 0-percent tax rate. But the actual quality of the product was the same as construction steel, which should have been taxed at 12 percent.

The zero tax rate allows steel products to be sold at cheaper prices than domestic products.