Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)The MoIT has ordered the Vietnamese Trade Office in Italy topay fact-finding visits to the ports of Genova and Napoli where cashew nut consignmentsfrom Vietnam arrived at and discuss with the port operators and localauthorities as well as concerned shipping lines and banks.
The trade office has requested the carriers to temporarilyhalt the release of the goods until the case is brought to light. Additionally,it has helped the Vietnamese exporters seek consultation from Italianlawyers and take legal steps to gain control of the consignments.
The Trade Office of Vietnam in the US, meanwhile, hascontacted the broker to request for information and cooperation in theprobe into the case.
The ministry has also asked for help from the Embassy of Italyin Vietnam as well as the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and InternationalCooperation and Minister of Economy and Finance to promptly settle the case, thus protecting legitimate rights of Vietnamese exporters and reputation of Italianfirms.
Furthermore, the ministry recommended exporters todouble-check their overseas partners via different sources of information, includingVietnamese trade offices in foreign countries, and take risk managementmeasures like insurance.
Vietnamese exporters are at risk of losing hundreds ofmillions of USD in the suspected cashew nut scam in which they have not received any paymentas agreed for the shipment of 100 containers of cashew nuts to Italy.
As of late March 9, 36 containers' original documents,required by shippers to release the containers, have gone missing andVietnamese exporters have not yet received payment for their goods. Somecontainers have arrived in Italy while others are on the way.
Several exporters have reported that changes were made tothe SWIFT code sent from Vietnamese banks to those allegedly representing theimporter in Turkey. The Turkish banks said the buyer is not their client andsaid they had sent back the documents. However, they failed to specify how theyhad sent back the original documents and have not provided Vietnamese banks with billsof lading.
After document collections were sent to the buyer’s bank inItaly, the Italian bank replied that it had received only copies of the billsof lading, not the original documents. Therefore, they cannot process thepayments. It is the norm in international trade that anyone with the originaldocuments can collect the goods and the shippers must comply./.
VNA
