Guidelines for trade remedies in The RCEP Agreement

DNHN - Earlier this month, the Ministry of Industry and Trade released Circular 07/2022/TT-BCT, which lays out how trade remedies would be used under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement was signed on November 15, 2020, by ten ASEAN member nations and five partner countries, namely Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand, and entered into effect on January 1, 2022.

The RCEP Agreement establishes a massive market of 2.2 billion customers, or around 30% of the world's population, with a GDP of up to 26.2 trillion USD (equivalent to 30 percent of the global GDP).

Within the next 20 years, the RCEP will eliminate at least 92 percent of tariff lines between members while also developing standard regulations for e-commerce, commodities trade, and intellectual property rights.

Vietnam's exports to RCEP nations will reach 132.32 billion USD in 2021, up around 16% from 2020, while imports will reach 238.5 billion USD, up 28% from 2020.

According to the World Bank's prediction, after the RCEP takes effect, Vietnam will have the greatest rate of trade and income development among the agreement's members. Apart from the benefits of the agreement, Vietnam also has other problems, including a substantial trade imbalance with this bloc (particularly with China, Korea, and ASEAN), the inability to export items subject to trade remedies, and other technical hurdles.

Vietnam has been probed by RCEP members for 93 trade remedy measures impacting sectors such as steel, fiber, and wood- 23 trade remedy claims against RCEP nations, mostly in the metals, textiles, and sweetener sectors.

Chapter 7 of the RCEP Agreement contains regulations on trade remedies, including a prohibition on the use of the zeroing calculation method, public obligations to disclose material facts and handle confidential information in anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, and specific commitments on transitional RCEP safeguards.

To implement these regulations, assist Vietnamese businesses in taking advantage of the Agreement's incentives, and protect domestic production pro-actively throughout the implementation process, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular 07/2022/TT-BCT, which guides the implementation of trade remedies under the RCEP Agreement.

According to the Circular, the investigating authority is required to inform the Member under investigation in writing of the receipt of the anti-dumping investigation dossier at least seven days before the Minister of Industry and Trade takes a decision.

Anti-dumping investigations and enforcement. The investigating authority is required to inform the Member under investigation in writing of the receipt of the anti-subsidy investigation dossier at least twenty days before the Minister of Industry and Trade chooses to investigate and impose the countervailing measure.

The Investigating Authority is required to submit a non-confidential copy of the Anti-subsidy Investigation Request File upon request from the Government of the Member State concerned. Concerning the method of calculating the dumping margin: In accordance with the provisions of Points a and b, Clause 2, Article 20 of Decree No. 10/2018/ND-CP, the investigating authority must add all individual margins, whether positive or negative, to arrive at the overall margin of each foreign producer or exporter.

This rule does not restrict the investigating authority's ability to determine the margin of dumping in accordance with the terms of Article 20 of Decree No. 10/2018/ND-CP, point c, clause 2.

 Lan Phuong