The imposition of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes on cane sugar imported from Thailand has created a positive effect on the domestic sugar industry.
That is the affirmation of Mr. Le Trieu Dung, Director of the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade), however, Mr. Dung also emphasized that in order to develop in the long term, the sugar industry must improve its competitiveness.

 

Sir, how did the process of receiving documents from the domestic production industry until initiating the investigation and deciding to impose taxes on cane sugar imported from Thailand take place?

The anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation on Thai cane sugar products was initiated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in September 2020 based on the request of the domestic production industry. The Ministry has promptly conducted the investigation in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Foreign Trade Management as well as the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

After a period of investigation, on February 9, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade decided to impose temporary anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes on cane sugar originating from Thailand. After the preliminary decision, the Ministry coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Sugarcane and Sugar Association and relevant units to carry out the next steps of the investigation. 

On June 15, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No. 1578/QD-BCT, accordingly, applying an official anti-dumping tax rate of 42.99% and an official anti-subsidy tax rate of 4.65% on cane sugar products originating from Thailand for a period of 5 years.

The domestic sugar industry has been really exhausted by dumped imported sugar. Do the above anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes accurately reflect the reality of dumping of cane sugar originating from Thailand, sir?

During the investigation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade carefully examined the dumping/subsidy of Thailand causing damage to the domestic manufacturing industry, the impact on the socio-economy, including the impact on downstream enterprises using cane sugar products.

The investigation results showed that cane sugar originating from Thailand was dumped at 42.99%, subsidized at 4.65%. The total level of dumping and subsidy was 47.64%. 

The domestic sugar industry has suffered heavy losses for a long time, reflected in factors such as: imported goods under investigation have increased sharply, affecting prices, reducing output, consumption, capacity, sales volume, market share, revenue, profits, etc. A series of sugar factories have had to close, causing serious impacts on workers' jobs.

According to calculations, 3,300 workers have lost their jobs and 93,225 farming households have been affected by the difficulties of the domestic sugar industry.

The main reason for the above situation is that subsidized and dumped imported sugar from Thailand increased sharply in 2020, up to nearly 1.5 million tons, an increase of 330.4% compared to 2019.

How do you assess the impact of the application of temporary trade defense measures and the recent decision to impose official taxes on imported sugar on the sugar industry?

Since the preliminary tax imposition (February 2021), the Ministry of Industry and Trade assessed that the imposition of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes on cane sugar imported from Thailand has had a positive impact on the sugar industry.

Specifically, the amount of sugar imported from Thailand from March 2021 to this point has decreased significantly, from an average of 110,000 tons in 2020 to only about 28,000 tons, a decrease of 75%. This has reduced the unfair competitive impact of Thai sugar on the domestic production industry, thereby helping the price of domestically produced sugar to increase. At the same time, the sugarcane purchase price of farmers has increased from 100,000 to 200,000 VND/ton, helping farmers consume all of more than 6 million tons of sugarcane for the first time in many years. 

However, in reality, many domestic sugar enterprises have had to "give up the game" because of imported sugar, and the sugarcane area has also decreased very low. Will anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes help increase the sugarcane growing area soon, sir?

According to the Sugarcane Association, in many localities, many production units and farmers have planned to expand the sugarcane growing area for the 2021-2022 crop year. It must be said that anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes will be a good condition to gradually restore the raw material areas of sugarcane factories and enterprises, and at the same time reduce pressure on domestic sugarcane enterprises in the coming time.

In terms of supply and demand, trade defense measures also help stabilize supply and demand in the market, domestic sugar prices have increased, but at an acceptable level and also within the calculation plan. All the proposed target factors and policies have been achieved. We are working closely with the Sugarcane Association and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to closely monitor the import situation and the impact of this measure to have appropriate response solutions, ensuring the effectiveness of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures as well as ensuring supply - demand, stabilizing the market according to regulations.

However, in my opinion, the most important factor for the sugar industry to develop in the long term is to improve the competitiveness of the industry. To do this, the decisive condition is to closely link sugar factories and farmers, ensuring the legitimate interests of sugarcane growers.

According to Baodautu.vn