Vietnam needs to respond to trade disputes

Knowledge of trading and the law is essential for Vietnamese businesses to cope with disputes over goods exported to the US and the European Union (EU), said a senior trade official.

The Deputy Head of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI)’s Trade Promotion Department, Le Hoang Anh, stated this at a seminar entitled ‘International Trade and Foreign Investment’ in Hanoi on July 1.
Knowledge of trading and the law is essential for Vietnamese businesses to cope with disputes over goods exported to the US and the European Union (EU), said a senior trade official.

The Deputy Head of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI)’s Trade Promotion Department, Le Hoang Anh, stated this at a seminar entitled ‘International Trade and Foreign Investment’ in Hanoi on July 1.

Changes to these two markets’ trade laws and policies have a direct impact on Vietnamese producers and exporters, she said.

In fact, many Vietnamese sectors have faced difficulties and remained passive when responding to trade disputes and anti-dumping lawsuits against the country’s key exports, including frozen shrimp and catfish in the US and leather shoes and bicycles in the EU.

The majority of Vietnamese businesses have not been aware of the risks of trade disputes and are slow to respond due to their poor knowledge of the markets’ trade regulations and laws.

By giving examples of anti-dumping lawsuits against Vietnamese exports to the EU, Paulette Vander Schueren, an international lawyer in customs and international trade from the Brussels-based Mayer Brown JSM, said that many Vietnamese exports have faced unnecessary barriers.

Despite trade disputes, Vietnam’s trade mission to the US has forecast that the country’s export earnings to the US is estimated to have rise by 15 percent over 2009 to more than 14 billion USD this year.

The country has also targeted achieving an export turnover of more than 12 billion USD in the EU market, a year-on-year rise of 14.2 percent./.

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