Despite hopeful signs of a rally in global economy, domestic enterprises were warned to remain cautious, as a new wave of anti-dumping lawsuits from the US and the EU is hitting Vietnam.
Tran Huu Huynh, Deputy Secretary General and Head of the Legal Department of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), sounded the alarm at a workshop in Hanoi on March 10.
In these two major markets, new threats, such as those against wooden furniture, have driven down Vietnam’s exports, even as existing lawsuits against its seafood, plastic bags, footwear, bicycles and compact lamps have not yet been settled, Huynh said.
Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from the Trade Remedies Council (TRC) under the VCCI said there have been 42 lawsuits against Vietnamese products to date, posing a serious threat to Vietnamese exports.
Adding insult to injury, a number of countries consider such suits an effective tool to protect their domestic industries from low-priced, made-in-Vietnam products, she added.
Dr. Peter John Koenig, senior lawyer from the US Squire Sanders law firm, warned that the number of anti-dumping lawsuits against Vietnamese products in the US was likely to increase as the Southeast Asian country is no longer immune to these protectionist tactics.
He advised Vietnamese exporters to be cautious, pointing out that most Vietnamese enterprises brought beforecourts on anti-dumping lawsuits in 2009 stood behind bar for the first time in the US.
Consequently, not a few numbers of enterprises did not know what to do and faced problems in the proceedings, said the attorney from one of the strongest and geographically diverse law firms in the world.
Many enterprises have dodged the suits or refused to cooperate with their professional associations, thus suffering unfavourable results, he explained.
A lack of information and an absence of a legal partner network in small local markets is another problem for enterprises being sued to find good attorneys for their cases.
The TRC has called for assistance from the Vietnamese Bureaus of Commerce in the local markets just in case./.
Tran Huu Huynh, Deputy Secretary General and Head of the Legal Department of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), sounded the alarm at a workshop in Hanoi on March 10.
In these two major markets, new threats, such as those against wooden furniture, have driven down Vietnam’s exports, even as existing lawsuits against its seafood, plastic bags, footwear, bicycles and compact lamps have not yet been settled, Huynh said.
Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from the Trade Remedies Council (TRC) under the VCCI said there have been 42 lawsuits against Vietnamese products to date, posing a serious threat to Vietnamese exports.
Adding insult to injury, a number of countries consider such suits an effective tool to protect their domestic industries from low-priced, made-in-Vietnam products, she added.
Dr. Peter John Koenig, senior lawyer from the US Squire Sanders law firm, warned that the number of anti-dumping lawsuits against Vietnamese products in the US was likely to increase as the Southeast Asian country is no longer immune to these protectionist tactics.
He advised Vietnamese exporters to be cautious, pointing out that most Vietnamese enterprises brought beforecourts on anti-dumping lawsuits in 2009 stood behind bar for the first time in the US.
Consequently, not a few numbers of enterprises did not know what to do and faced problems in the proceedings, said the attorney from one of the strongest and geographically diverse law firms in the world.
Many enterprises have dodged the suits or refused to cooperate with their professional associations, thus suffering unfavourable results, he explained.
A lack of information and an absence of a legal partner network in small local markets is another problem for enterprises being sued to find good attorneys for their cases.
The TRC has called for assistance from the Vietnamese Bureaus of Commerce in the local markets just in case./.
