The Ministry of Industry and Trade leaders affirmed that domestic hot-rolled steel products were still sold to the US, unaffected.
After 11 months of investigation, on July 2, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) preliminarily concluded that cold rolled steel and anti-corrosion steel using hot rolled steel imported from Korea and Taiwan were "converted." insignificant ", helping to avoid taxes that the US is applying. Therefore, US Customs is proposed to collect taxes up to 456.23% with steel imported from Vietnam using materials from these two places.
Mr. Le Trieu Dung - Director of the Department of Trade Protection (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said: "In case of cold rolled steel, anti-corrosion steel produced from Vietnamese materials is not subject to tax under this decision".
According to Mr. Dung, according to the previous practice of the US, if enterprises import hot rolled steel and then produce another kind of steel will be considered a "significant transformation", not considered tax evasion. But in the last 3 years, the US has changed its view and demanded that domestic production be considered not to evade taxes.
The Trade Protection Department affirmed that in the investigation process, it was closely coordinated with the Steel Association and related enterprises to provide information on the production process in Vietnam as well as the value added of product.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has warned and recommended that the investigating agencies of importing countries can change their decisions, set out more stringent regulations for enterprises to study appropriate production and business plans.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) are not surprised about the preliminary ruling of DOC, by this Association once warned. Mr. Nguyen Van Sua - former Vice President of VSA said that the decision to impose US taxes on some Vietnamese steel products is not a worrying signal for the domestic steel industry.
In 2017, the US used to pay taxes similar to Vietnamese steel, and at that time the steel industry was only affected in the short term because from June 2017, Formosa Ha Tinh produced hot rolled steel - materials for making cold rolled steel. and stainless steel (galvanized steel, color coated steel).
Talking about this tax evasion behavior, Mr. Tran Quoc Khanh - Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade said, most of them are located in some FDI enterprises that get hot rolled steel materials imported from Korea, Taiwan ... and then finished. products, and sold to the US. Vietnamese steel enterprises have "known this should have certain preparations from last year". According to him, if enterprises use hot-rolled steel in the country, or the country is not taxed by the US, they still sell products to the US.
After the preliminary conclusion, according to US practice, the official conclusion will be made after 3-4 months. "The Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to coordinate the protection of legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, in accordance with the provisions of law, WTO regulations and prevent tax evasion behavior," the Director of the Trade Protection Department said. determined.
From December 2015 and February 2016, the US imposed taxes on stainless steel and cold rolled steel products from Korea and Taiwan. From the US side, from then to April 2019, exports of stainless steel and cold rolled steel from Vietnam to the US increased sharply compared to before.
The US Department of Commerce ruling is based on requests from a number of US businesses including ArcelorMittal, Nucor Corp, United States Steel Corp, Steel Dynamics Inc, California Steel Industries, and AK Steel Corp.
