Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Industry and Trade hasprovided early warnings for 18 export products originating from Vietnam which arefacing a high risk of being investigated for trade defence measures, originfraud and illegal transshipment.

Those products include hardwood plywood, wooden cabinets andvanities, seats with wooden frames, upholstered, quartz surface products,ceramic tile, steel propane cylinders, carton-closing staples, wood mouldings,millwork products, solar panels, CORE, pipe and tube, prestressed concrete,steel wire strand, large residential washers, aluminium wire and cable,aluminium extrusions, stainless steel flanges exported to the US and electricbicycles exported to the US and EU.

For hardwood plywood, early warning was issued from July 2019after the US imposed anti-dumping duty on the same products originating fromChina from October 2017.

Vietnam’s export of hardwood plywood increased rapidly from 33.4million USD in 2016 to 322.2 million USD in 2019. The export revenue to the USfrom July 2022 to June 2023 reached 378.9 million USD, accounting for 27.8% ofthe US’s import.

The US Customs and Border Protection in October 2019 initiatedinvestigations for tax evasion of several US companies importing hardwoodplywood from Vietnam.

The US Department of Commerce initiated circumventioninvestigation on plywood imported from Vietnam in June 2020 and issued thefinal decision in July 2023 which said that plywood which had the core producedfrom peeled wood imported from China was considered to be evading thetrade remedy measures applied to plywood imported from China.

For wooden cabinets and vanities, Vietnam’s export to the US alsoincreased strongly from 913 million USD in 2018 to 1.37 billion USD in 2019.The total export value to the US in the period from July 2022 to June 2023exceeded 2.7 billion USD, or 3.8% of the US’s import.

The investigation on wooden cabinets originating from Vietnam wasinitiated in May 2022 and initial decisions were expected to be announced inOctober.

The US imposed an anti-dumping duty from 4.37% to 262.18%, and ananti-subsidy duty from 13.33% to 292.45% on similar products originated fromChina.

The export of seats with wooden frames, upholstered, also saw strongincreases to the US from 819 million USD in 2018 to 2.1 billion USD to2020. During the 12 months ending in June, the export revenue was 2.2 billionUSD, or 34.2% of the US’s import. The similar product originated from China wassubject to a tariff of 25% in the US.

For other products, the US was also imposing trade defencemeasures on those originating from China and the exports of Vietnam to the USwere seeing significant increases, pushing these products to the risk of beinginvestigated for trade defence measures, the Vietnam Trade Remedies Authoritysaid.

The authority urged enterprises to improve the origin traceabilityand to avoid using materials from China which were subject to duties inthe US./.