Maritime Transportation, Common Issues: vietnam international law firm

On April 6 2020, Minister of Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOIT) signed the Decision 1079/QD-BCT on investigating and applying anti-dumping measures to some products made of polyester filament yarns originated from People’s Republic of China, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia and Malaysia. Related parties may by themselves or authorize to experienced law firm in Vietnam on international trade to work with Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam to cooperate.

Who are Requesters of Anti-dumping Investigation in Vietnam?

The Requester is 03 (three) companies including (i) Vietnam Petrochemical and Fiber Joint Stock Company (ii) Formosa Industries Corporation (iii) century synthetic fiber corporation. In which, production of Requester and Supporter take 67,4% total similar production produced domestically and there is no domestic producer oppose the case.

What Imported Products under Anti-dumping Investigation in Vietnam?

The products under investigation of AD10 are some products made of polyester filament yarns with following HS code: 5402.33.00, 5402.46.00 and 5402.47.00 originated from People’s Republic of China (China), Republic of India (India), Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia) and Malaysia.

How to Determine Damage and Causal relationship in Anti-dumping Case?

Products which are supposed to be dumped are the reasons leading to the significant damage of domestic industry:

-An excessive increase regarding the imported production of products originated from China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

-Signs of the price difference, the price of imported products are always considerably lower than the sale price of domestic industry.

-Decrease in profits and gross profit margin, production, coefficient of using capacity of domestic industry, whilst the market share of similar products from China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia is increasing.

The causal relationship: The dossiers of Requester proved that there is a causal relationship between dumping imported products and significant damage of domestic industry.

How to Register as Interested Parties in Anti-dumping Case?

According to Article 74 Law on foreign trade management, interested parties in the case include:

a) Overseas organizations and individuals that produce and export products under consideration to Vietnam;

b) Importers of products under consideration;

c) Foreign associations whose majority of members are organizations and individuals producing and exporting products under consideration;

d) The Government and competent authorities of the exporting country of product under consideration;

dd) Organizations and individuals that submit the application for the trade remedies;

e) Domestic producers of like products;

g) Domestic associations whose majority of members are producers of like products;

h) Other organizations and individuals that obtain legal rights and interests related to the investigated cases or facilitate the investigation or representative organizations of protection of customer rights.

Accordingly, organizations and individuals must register and be accepted by Investigating Authority to become Interested Parties in case.

Organizations and individuals can register with Investigating Authority as Interested Parties in case according to Application form for registration as interested parties and send them to Investigating Authority at the below address by the following methods: (i) Official dispatch and (ii) email within 60 working days from the day on which the decision on investigation takes effect (April 06th, 2020).

In order to ensure their rights and interests, the investigating authority recommend that organizations and individuals that produce, import or use the investigated goods register as interested parties to exercise the right to access information, provide information and express opinions during the investigation of the case.

What Investigation Questionnaire Refers To?

Within 15 days after the issuance of the investigation decision of the Minister of Industry and Trade, the Investigating Authority shall send the investigation questionnaire to the Interested Parties, including:

i).The applicant requests for application of anti-dumping measures;

ii).Other domestic manufacturers which Investigating Authority knows;

iii).Parties requesting for application investigation of anti-dumping measures which Investigating Authority knows;

iv).Importers of goods under investigation;

v).Diplomatic authorities of the country where the origin of goods under investigation;

vi).Other interested parties deemed necessary by the Investigating Authority.

Within 30 days after receiving the investigation question, Interested Parties must provide a written answer to all questions in the questionnaire. In case of necessity or a written request for extension with reasonable reasons from Interested Parties, the Investigating Authority may extend the time limit but it must be not more than 30 days.

Please be informed that the time limit for the anti-dumping measures imposition investigation shall be within 12 months from the day on which the decision on investigation is issued. In special case, Investigating Authority can determine other time limit for investigation but it shall not be less than 6 months.

Our competition lawyers at ANT Lawyers, international trade and taxes will always follow up with development from authorities to provide update to clients on anti-dumping cases.

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In order to stimulate growth and recover the economy after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government has issued a policy to reduce value added tax. The reduction of value-added tax is an effective solution and tool to stimulate consumption and is expected to create a driving force for rapid development to help businesses restore business and production.

The value-added tax reduction policy has been promulgated by Decree 15/2022/ND-CP stipulating the tax exemption and reduction policy according to the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 on fiscal and monetary policies currency to support the program of socio-economic recovery and development. Accordingly, value added tax will be reduced from 10% to 8%. This reduction will create conditions for consumers to increase spending, through which businesses will sell more products.

The value-added tax reduction will be applied to groups of goods and services currently subject to the 10% tax rate, except for the following groups of goods and services: (i) Telecommunications, financial and banking activities commodities, securities, insurance, real estate trading, metals and prefabricated metal products, mining products (excluding coal mining), coke, refined petroleum, chemical products; (ii) Products, goods and services subject to excise tax; (iii) Information technology under the law on information technology. However, if the goods and services are not subject to value-added tax or subject to value-added tax of 5% according to the provisions of the Law on Value-Added Tax, the provisions of the Law on Value-Added Tax shall be applied and not entitled to value added tax reduction.

It is important to note the value-added tax calculation method to apply. Accordingly, if the enterprise calculates value-added tax by the deduction method, the value-added tax rate of 8% shall apply; and in case the enterprise calculates value-added tax according to the percentage method on sales, collected, it will be reduced by 20% of the percentage rate for calculating value-added tax when issuing invoices for goods and services eligible for value-added tax reduction as prescribed.

The value-added tax reduction will be implemented quickly and businesses and consumers will immediately benefit. This tax reduction is expected to help reduce the cost of products and services, thereby stimulating consumer demand. Besides, it will help increase production output of enterprises and create more jobs for workers. Therefore, the reduction of value added tax is considered necessary solutions to promote the economy to recover soon after a long time affected by the pandemic.

The value-added tax reduction policy will be effective from February 1st, 2022 to the end of December 31st, 2022. Previously, value-added tax was only reduced for a few specific products, but with this policy, the object of tax reduction has been expanded in most fields of business and production. Therefore, the impact of this policy on the economy in the future is very large. However, in order for the value-added tax reduction to reach consumers, tax authorities need stricter inspection and control to meet the set goals. When in doubt, it is important to consult with tax lawyers for solutions and advice.

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Currently, counterfeit products and product infringing intellectual property rights happening in Vietnam are very popular and diverse in types. This situation not only affects domestic production and trade but also has a negative impact on close business partners of Vietnam, including Korea. In many cases, the infringed parties have been seeking help from IP lawyers in Vietnam for advice.

With cultural compatibility, Korean products such as fashion, home appliances, cosmetics, and functional foods are very popular and widely consumed in Vietnam. Therefore, with the quick grasp of this trend, the products of Korean enterprises have become the subject of counterfeiting. Besides, with the development of e-commerce channels, these counterfeit products quickly reach consumers, affecting the interests of consumers in Vietnam and Korean enterprises.

Moreover, with technology, forgery is increasingly done in a very sophisticated way from the packaging, share, and the color of the counterfeit products. Therefore, without a method of comparison and inspection, it is difficult for consumers to detect the product as a fake. This causes great damage to Korean enterprises not only the market share, but also the value of reputation and intellectual property rights being violated.

Besides, the Covid-19 pandemic makes people in Vietnam more inclined to buy goods online. This is an opportunity for individuals and organizations that counterfeit products to easily reach out to consumers without being detected and punished.

In addition, although Vietnam has a mechanism to enforce intellectual property rights, these regulations have not been thoroughly applied. Therefore, many individuals and organizations making counterfeit goods and infringing intellectual property still continue to violate without being caught. Meanwhile, consumers still have to pay to use bad quality products.

With the support of Korean businesses, Vietnam authorities will continue to improve their capability in identifying counterfeit goods and goods infringing on intellectual property. Therefore, an exchange between Korean businesses and the General Department of Market Management of Vietnam is necessary in providing methods to detect counterfeit goods and intellectual property violations for Vietnam agencies to exchange support, raise awareness of intellectual property rights protection, and provide information on intellectual property rights for Korean businesses in Vietnam. It is expected that Vietnam intellectual property enforcement agencies improve their efficiency in identifying, preventing, combating and handling counterfeit and infringing goods in Vietnam to protect consumers and company in creating an encouraging investment environment in Vietnam, for Korean investors to enter Vietnam for setting up company, factory and do business in Vietnam.

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Intellectual property is currently playing a very important role in Vietnam and other countries around the world. With the participation in Trade Agreements and market expansion, the regulations on intellectual property have had many positive changes towards the protection and promotion of intellectual property rights and in line with the general trend of countries.

Intellectual property rights are the rights of organizations or individuals to trademarks, inventions, designs or other forms of creation. Currently, intellectual property rights are recognized as an asset class, which can constitute corporate assets. Popular groups of intellectual property today include: (i) Copyright; (ii) Inventions; (iii) Industrial design; (iv) Trademarks. These are objects created by thinking, mental labor, cognitive activities of people and protected by law.

Currently, intellectual property rights are governed by the 2005 Intellectual Property Law, which was amended and supplemented in 2009, and 2019. These are efforts in changing Vietnam’s legal system in raise awareness and perfect the legal system on intellectual property of Vietnam. Up to now, the Intellectual Property Law has created a legal corridor for organizations and individuals to establish and protect intellectual property rights, contributing to encouraging creative activities, and enhancing the value of intellectual property, wisdom. However, after 17 years since its promulgation, the Law on Intellectual Property has also arisen problems, inadequacies and incompatibility to ensure the implementation of commitments on intellectual property in trade agreements to which Vietnam is a member.

To implement the above guidelines and policies, the National Office of Intellectual has coordinated with relevant agencies to change and supplement regulations on intellectual property accordingly. Accordingly, the content of amendments to the Intellectual Property Law focuses on important groups of policies with about 100 amended and supplemented articles. Therefore, obstacles and inadequacies such as regulations on licensing of patents, industrial designs, layout designs and plant varieties are the result of scientific and technological tasks using the state budget; regulations relating to procedures for registration and establishment of intellectual property rights and validity of protection titles; regulations on security control for inventions before registration abroad; on compensation to patent owners for delays in marketing authorization of pharmaceutical products; on sound trademark protection; on geographical indication management; on liability for copyright and related rights for enterprises providing intermediary services.

In addition to the Draft of Intellectual Property Law, the Draft Circular is also proposed to stipulate economic – technical norms for a number of public services funded by the state budget, including training and retraining services on Intellectual Property, the service of confirming the validity of international registration of trademarks protected in Vietnam.

Moreover, the National Office of Intellectual also implemented the reform and modernization of the information technology system, reducing the burden of administrative procedures, internal processes to handle administrative procedures; actively review and evaluate administrative procedures and develop a plan for decentralization and simplification of administrative procedures in the field of intellectual property; organize the collection of fees and charges via commercial bank accounts and issue receipts of electronic fees and charges. In addition, the information synchronization for the Government’s National Public Service Portal is also interested in development.

The new Draft Law on Intellectual Property has many additions and adjustments in accordance with practical requirements and is expected to take effect, which will help solve problems that still exist. However, in order to ensure that the enforcement of intellectual property rights is effective and meets the set requirements, businesses need to pay attention and comply well with legal regulations.

We help clients overcome cultural barriers and achieve their strategic and financial outcomes, while ensuring the best interest rate protection, risk mitigation and regulatory compliance. ANT lawyers have Attorneys in Hanoi, Attorneys in Ho Chi Minh and Attorneys in Danang.

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