How does the Law on export and import tax regulate trade defence?

	Goods of a minimum value exempted from duties
	Goods of a minimum value exempted from Customs duties
	Application of policies in case of a new declaration for goods transferred to domestic consumption

The Law on export tax and import tax 2016 has been upgraded with some provisions of tax-defence measures to contribute to the protection of domestic production. Photo: Thu Trang.

In fact, the tax-defence measures such as safeguard tax, anti-dumping tax, anti-subsidy tax and anti-discrimination tax in imports are specified in Clause 2 and Clause 3 of Article 5 and Article 11 of the Law on export tax and import tax 2005, but does not cover all the necessary provisions to apply these taxes.

In addition to the provisions of Law on export tax and import tax 2005, the application of these taxes must comply with the provisions in the Ordinance on Anti-dumping No. 20/2004 / PL-UBTVQH11 04/29/2004, the Ordinance on Anti-subsidy No. 22/2004 / PL-UBTVQH11, and the Ordinance on Safeguards No. 42/2002 / PL-UBTVQH10 issued by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

Therefore, in order to contribute to the protection of domestic production, the Law on export tax and import tax 2016 has been upgraded with some provisions currently prescribed in three Ordinances (Anti-dumping tax, anti-subsidy tax, safeguard tax) to determine the conditions and principles for application of the three taxes in the Law on export tax and import tax, protecting domestic production which may be affected or threatened by acts of dumping, subsidies and discrimination of trading partners.

The upgraded contents of the Law on export tax and import tax are the most common regulations (conditions, rules, duration of application) in relation to tax, not abolishing other contents in the three Ordinances.

It can be seen that tranferring the legal provisions of the Ordinances into the Law on export tax and import tax 2016 is consistent with the general policy of the Government in transparency of the process of finalizing the laws in Vietnam.

Under current international experience, trade defence measures play an important role in the trade policy of the country which are applied to protect domestic industries from foreign competitors and are used as barriers for market entry, including: anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard measures.

Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy are applied to deal with acts of unfair competition from imported goods. While anti-dumping measures are to deal with the act of selling products at low prices to dominate the market and eliminate the competitors, the anti-subsidy measures are applied to protect domestic manufacturing industry from the special policies of foreign countries’ subsidies for export.

Safeguard measures are considered as tools to protect domestic manufacturing, which shall be applied in cases of emergency including abnormal increase of imports or unfavorable conditions for domestic production.

According to the Law on export tax and import tax 2016, the entire Chapter III (Articles 12, 13, 14, 15) on anti-dumping tax, anti-subsidy tax and safeguard tax, states that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is the agency determining the application of anti-dumping tax, anti-subsidy tax and safeguard tax for specific cases.

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Until now, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has applied safeguard measures against imported goods such as: vegetable oil, billet and steel products, monosodium glutamate from several countries; and anti-dumping tax on imported goods such as stainless steel with a thickness of less than 3.5mm from some countries. Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has not applied anti-subsidy tax for any items.