SGGP News– The Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam recently received information that the US Department of Commerce was requested to launch an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation on certain hardwood plywood products imports from Vietnam by the Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood.Therefore, the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam sent an official dispatch to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association to notify the situation. Last year, the export turnover of hardwood plywood products was US$309 million, an increase of 950 percent compared to that in 2016. therefore
According to the petitioner, as hardwood plywood products imported from China were imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties, Chinese manufacturers shipped parts of these products to Vietnam for mere assembly before exporting them to the US. The petitioner accused hardwood plywood assembling factories in Vietnam and manufacturing factories in China of being associate companies that commit acts of evading anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties applied to Chinese products. Therefore, the petitioner was asking the DOC to issue a final scope ruling or launch anti-circumvention proceedings on this product and complete its review within 45 days.
Earlier, in January 2018, DOC levied anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China with the anti-dumping rate at 183.36 percent and countervailing rate from 22.98 percent to 194.9 percent. As a result, the export turnover of hardwood plywood products in China dropped drastically from around $800 million in 2018 to around $300 million in 2019. Meanwhile, exports from Vietnam increased rapidly, from $63 million in 2017 to $187 million in 2018 and $309 million in 2019.
To resolve this problem, the Trade Remedies Authority will hold a meeting on March 5 to find a solution. To protect the rights and interests of export enterprises, the Trade Remedies Authority asked the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association to inform relevant enterprises of Vietnam to actively deal with this problem. At first, enterprises need to quickly review and give their opinions about the contents of the petition and send them to the DOC as soon as possible. In case that the DOC initiates the investigation, enterprises should engage and cooperate with the investigator to ensure positive results for the case.