Together with the increase in trade activities given the country’sinternational economic integration, trade disputes between Vietnam andimporting countries are also rising, according to the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI).

The Can Tho branch ofthe VCCI announced last week in a report quoted by the Saigon TimesDaily that trade disputes among Vietnamese exporting enterprises andother nations have picked up in terms of case numbers and commoditiessince 2010.

Local exporters faced two anti-dumpinglawsuits and one anti-subsidy case in 2010, four anti-dumping lawsuitsand two anti-subsidy cases in 2011, according to the report.

Exports facing trade disputes in 2010 were hangers, air conditionersand polyethylene (PE) plastic bags, which increased to five in 2011 withrolled steel, yarn, footwear, steel pipes and carbon steel pipes.

The Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry andTrade said in its Annual Report 2012 that it handled 12 trade remedycases against Vietnam exports, including seven anti-dumping cases, oneanti-circumvention case, two countervailing duties cases and twoprotection cases.

Similarly, exporting firms havebeen charged with four anti-subsidy lawsuits and three anti-dumping onesthis year. Four items suffering the charges from January to May thisyear are steel conduit pipes, stainless steel pipes, stainless steel andfrozen warm water shrimp.

Nguyen Phuong Lam,director of the Legal Compliance Department of Can Tho branch’s VCCI,recently cited statistics on trade disputes handled at the VietnamInternational Arbitration Centre (VIAC) showing commodity tradingdisputes posting the highest ratio, at over 70percent , followed byprocessing and construction sharing 5 percent each. Investmentcooperation disputes alone make up 4 percent of the case number settledby VIAC, reported the Saigon Times Daily.

According toLam, experiences from trade disputes expose the two main weak points ofexporting enterprises - the lack of information on customers andimporting nations, and the poor knowledge of related laws.

"Studying customers is a very important factor but local exportersoften forget to do so, with up to 80 percent of local firms failing toinvest in this step," he said at a seminar on solutions for farm produceand seafood exports held in Can Tho City last week.

He also advised enterprises to pay attention to how and where theproblems will be handled when signing export contracts. In particular,local firms need to master trade dispute law and international law orbuy insurance to avoid risks in case of disputes./.