Vietnam will investigate against trade remedies evasion for Thai sugar

September 02, 2021 | 13:01

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The Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade for an investigation against trade remedy evasion for cane sugar products originating from Thailand.

Vietnam will investigate against trade remedies evasion for Thai sugar

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will conduct a detailed appraisal of the request of the VSSA for consideration to initiate investigation

The Ministry of Industry and Trade revealed that it received the request on August 25. Accordingly, there have been signs that Thailand's cane sugar products subject evaded anti-dumping and countervailing duties by going through a number of other ASEAN countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar before arriving to Vietnam.

Previously, the ministry issued Decision No.1578/QD-BCT dated June 15, applying 42.99 per cent anti-dumping and 4.65 per cent countervailing duties on a number of cane sugar products.

Since the duties were levied, several signs of evasion have been detected as sugar import turnover from ASEAN countries (except Thailand) increased sharply.

The VSSA reported that 399,189 tonnes of sugar were imported from the above five countries in the first half of 2021, 10 times higher than the 38.61 tonnes in the same period last year.

In general, in the first half, statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that the amount of imported sugar reached 781,334 tonnes with a total value of more than $367.2 million.

While Thai sugar is subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duties, sugar imported from these five countries is only subject to 5 per cent tax. Many of these countries have been importing sugar from Thailand and had not been exporting sugar cane before

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