Investigate sugar imported from five ASEAN countries

On September 21st, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh signed a decision to investigate the application of safeguard anti-evading measures against some sugar products imported into Vietnam from Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia.

Previously, on August 25th, the Ministry of Industry and Trade received the dossier requesting the application of safeguard anti-evading measures from the Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association (VSSA) representing six domestic cane sugar production companies.

According to the allegation in the dossier, since Vietnam applied anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures with cane sugar products originating from Thailand, there have been signs of anti-dumping and anti-dumping tax evasion on sugar from Thailand through several ASEAN countries.

Information from the General Department of Customs shows that in the first seven months of 2021 an abnormal phenomenon occurred in sugar imports into Vietnam: The amount of sugar imported from Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia into Vietnam has increased sharply in comparison to the same period in 2020.

To be more specific, in the first seven months of this year, the amount of sugar imported from the five mentioned countries was 475,985 tons, which is six times the amount in the same period in 2020 (71,583 tons). VSSA believes that this is a clear sign of a move to avoid anti-dumping and anti-dumping tax from Thailand on cane sugar products. It’s due to the fact that this increase is not consistent with the cane sugar production development capacity of these five countries, and all of them import sugar from Thailand.