With 77 cases, the US currently leads in the number of trade remedy investigations against Vietnamese goods, including shrimp products. This requires Vietnamese shrimp exporting enterprises to remain calm and proactively respond to increasingly stringent legal processes.

The focus of investigations

According to the report “Research and proposed solutions to respond to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases in the US market” by the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (Ministry of Industry and Trade), with its position as the partner holding the third-largest trade surplus with the US, Vietnam is becoming a focus of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations.

The US is the largest importer in the world. The competition from imported goods also exerts pressure on domestic manufacturing industries in the US, forcing President Donald Trump's administration to seek solutions to restrict imports. Examples include investigating and applying trade remedy measures (anti-dumping; anti-subsidy; anti-circumvention of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties; safeguards), Section 301 and Section 232 of the Trade Act, the Forced Labor Prevention Act, and most recently, countervailing duties.

One of the tools frequently used by the US administration over the past period is trade remedy measures. According to WTO statistics, the US currently ranks first in the world in investigating and applying trade remedy measures to protect domestic manufacturing industries. To date, the US has conducted investigations into 77 cases out of a total of 297 foreign investigation cases against Vietnam (accounting for nearly 26%), including: 35 anti-dumping cases, 16 anti-subsidy cases, 23 trade remedy duty circumvention cases, and 3 safeguard cases.

Recently, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) issued preliminary results in the 20th administrative review (POR20) of the anti-dumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam exported to the US during the period from February 1, 2024, to January 31, 2025. In this review period, 29 Vietnamese companies timely submitted applications for a separate tariff rate and were approved by the DOC. Two companies among the 29 above were selected by the DOC as mandatory respondents.

According to the preliminary results, the 2 mandatory respondent enterprises were determined by the DOC to have anti-dumping (AD) duty rates of 6.76% and 10.76%. One of the 2 enterprises was concluded to have failed to provide a full description for certain input chemicals so that the DOC could match these chemicals with equivalent surrogate values, leading to the application of adverse facts available (AFA) to a portion of the input costs. The remaining 27 enterprises received a separate tariff rate of 7.56% – the weighted average rate of the 2 mandatory respondent enterprises.

In addition, the DOC intends to rescind the review for 8 enterprises due to having no shipments subject to consideration during the review period. Concurrently, 132 enterprises that failed to demonstrate eligibility for a separate rate continue to receive the Vietnam-wide entity rate of 25.76%.

Interested parties may submit comments to the DOC within 21 days from the date of publication in the US Federal Register, and rebuttal comments within 5 days thereafter. Parties may also submit requests for a hearing within 30 days from the date of issuance of this notice in the US Federal Register. It is expected that the DOC will issue the final results of this review within 120 days from the date of issuance of the preliminary results, around November 2026.

Accurately assessing the situation

Looking at the aforementioned move by the DOC, Mr. Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Foods Joint Stock Company, argued that Vietnamese shrimp has faced anti-dumping duties for 20 years and we have experience in responding, so the vital thing is to remain completely calm. This is merely a preliminary calculation – a temporary determination, and respondent enterprises are preparing to supplement data demonstrating no dumping.

Mr. Luc believes that once errors are discovered and proven, with the DOC's final duty determination, respondent enterprises will receive a reasonable tariff rate.

Sharing the same viewpoint, Ms. Le Hang, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), assessed that this is a preliminary tariff rate, not a final conclusion, so we have the right and the time to appeal in order to receive a reasonable outcome in a better direction.

Faced with the increasingly tightening trend of US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, Vietnam has built a relatively comprehensive legal framework with the Law on Foreign Trade Management and guiding circulars on trade remedies to respond to cases. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has established an early warning system to help enterprises identify the risk of being sued based on fluctuations in export indices.

The response capacity of enterprises has been enhanced; many major commodity sectors (shrimp, pangasius) are well-acquainted with US review periods and have achieved 0% tariff rates thanks to transparent accounting systems.

Proactively adapting

According to the report “Research and proposed solutions to respond to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases in the US market”, Vietnam still encounters a number of difficulties in response work. The fact that Vietnam has not yet been recognized by the US as having market economy status always places Vietnamese enterprises at a disadvantage when duty rates are calculated based on a surrogate country.

On the other hand, the cost of pursuing lawsuits in the US is extremely expensive, posing a major burden on small and medium enterprises. Vietnam still faces a shortage of domestic lawyers and experts capable of directly litigating in English and deeply understanding the complex calculation techniques of the DOC.

To enhance the effectiveness of responding to US trade remedy measures in the coming time, the report of the Trade Remedies Authority argued that management agencies need to continue prioritizing high-level negotiations so that the US will soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy, helping eliminate unfair duty calculation methods.

Transparency should be brought to support programs through reviewing and adjusting tax and credit incentive programs at both central and local levels to ensure they do not violate WTO and US regulations on countervailable subsidies. The early warning system should be upgraded by integrating data from major economic news agencies and international customs data to more accurately forecast investigation trends.

Research should be conducted on a mechanism to form a support fund (with contributions from businesses and the budget) to help commodity sectors hire international consultants in key cases. Along with that, a workforce of domestic experts should be developed by organizing intensive training programs on international trade law and production cost unbundling skills according to US standards. Inspection and post-inspection must be strengthened for items containing raw materials imported from countries currently subject to high US tariffs to prevent the risk of wide-scale anti-circumvention investigations.

Source: Tap chi Thuy san Viet Nam