A port in the northern port city of Hai Phong (Photo: VNA)

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) regrets that on August 2, 2024, the US Department of Commerce issued a determination, according to which although many positive changes have been recorded in Vietnam's economy in recent years, Vietnam continues to be recognized as a non-market economy.

This means that enterprises exporting Vietnamese goods to the US market will continue to be treated differently in anti-dumping and countervailing investigations of the United States, the actual production costs of Vietnamese enterprises will continue to be not recognized, instead, the "surrogate value" of a third country will be used to calculate dumping/subsidy margin in such cases.

If the US Department of Commerce had examined the records and practices in Viet Nam objectively and fairly, they would have been able to acknowledge the fact that Viet Nam was already a market economy like 72 other market economies recognized, in which there are major economies such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, India, South Korea, New Zealand...

Over the past 20 years, Vietnam's economy has undergone remarkable changes and development. Vietnam has successfully signed and put into practice 17 free trade agreements, including new-generation, high-standard free trade agreements with the European Union, CPTPP countries, and the United Kingdom with many extensive and comprehensive commitments from reduction of duties to raising labor standards, environmental protection, sustainable development, government procurement, transparency...These changes have been clarified in more than 20,000 pages of information and documents sent by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam to the US Department of Commerce, demonstrating Vietnam's strong progress on all six criteria set forth by the US Department of Commerce when considering the graduation to a market economy. The briefs provided by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam to the US Department of Commerce also fully and consistently demonstrate that Vietnam's level of implementation of these six criteria is at least equal to and generally better than the level of implementation of other countries that have been recognized as market economies; and in fact, equal to or better than countries that have always been considered as market economies. Therefore, based on the specific statutory criteria of US law, the recognition of the market economy for Vietnam is an objective and fair reality.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam would like to extend sincere thanks to 41 organizations, individuals, business associations and trade associations in Viet Nam and also the United States for expressing strong support for the graduation of Viet Nam to a market economy, including organizations and individuals representing US businesses such as the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), the Retail Industry Leaders Association and looks forward to the further companionship of the above-mentioned organizations and individuals in the future.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Viet Nam will continue to study and analyze the arguments in the Report of the US Department of Commerce assessing Vietnamese economy so as to continue the supplement and completion of the briefs and relevant dossier to submit to the US Department of Commerce to request another review to recognize the market economy status of Viet Nam, which will further concretize the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Viet Nam and the United States, thereby promoting bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation, bringing practical benefits to businesses and people of the two countries.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam will always support and accompany Vietnamese enterprises exporting to the US market in trade remedy investigations to ensure the highest benefits for the Vietnamese business community.