Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam is increasing the application of tradedefence instruments to protect the legitimate rights of domestic producers asthe country integrates rapidly into the global economy.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade on March 18 issued an initial decision totemporarily impose anti-dumping duty on monosodium glutamate (MSG) productsoriginating from China and Indonesia.

Exporters of products originating from China would face tariffs ranging from 2.889million VND (124 USD) per tonne to 6.385 million VND. A tariff of 5.289 millionVND per tonne would be applied to all products originating from Indonesia.

The tariff would be in effect from March 25 for 120 days.

The ministry initiated investigations in October 2019, which found that despitethe imposition of a safeguard tariff of 3.2 million VND per tonne, MSG productsoriginating from China and Indonesia had dumping margin of up to 28 percent,posing significant injuries to domestic production.

According to Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam, from 2016, the MSG productionindustry in many countries saw rising inventories, which might lead to dumpingto other countries, including Vietnam. This created difficulty and pressure onlocal industry.

In addition, the US and European Union were imposing anti-dumping tariffs onMSG originating from China and Indonesia, thus, the authority said thatproducers from the two countries might seek to expand export markets, includingVietnam.

Vietnam was the second largest MSG export market of China and fourth ofIndonesia.

Further investigations were still ongoing for a final decision. Investigationsto evaluate impacts to related parties, including end-users, were expected tofinish in the last quarter of this year.

On the same day, the ministry also decided to impose temporary anti-dumpingduty on biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) originating from China,Thailand and Malaysia. The duties would range from 14.99 percent to 43.04 percentfor products from China, 10.91 percent to 23.05 percent for Malaysia and 20.35 percentfor Thailand.

The investigation would be carried out until the third quarter of this year.

Starting in August 2019, the investigation found that strong rise in importvolume during the investigation process caused injuries to local production,especially drops in output, sale, revenue, profit, and market share. Many localproducers suffered losses and went bankrupt, according to the Trade RemediesAuthority.

In another development, Canada temporarily imposed anti-dumping and subsidyduties on corrosion-resistant steel sheet originating from several countries,including Vietnam.

The investigation initiated in November 2019 found Vietnamese exporters haddumping margins from 36.3 percent to 91.8 percent, thus, anti-dumping duty wasimposed from March 20. The final decision was expected on June 18.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said it would continue working with relevantagencies to ensure that the dumping margins in the final decision were morereasonable.

Exporters of products originating from Vietnam were not subject to subsidytariff as initial findings showed that the Government did not subsidise them./.