10:36:03 AM | 9/7/2022
The Ministry of Industry and Trade officially applied measures against evasion of trade remedies (Decision 1514/QD-BCT) for cane sugar products from five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar). The effective period is from August 8, 2022 to June 15, 2026. Thai sugar will be subject to an anti-dumping duty of 42.99% and an anti-subsidy duty of 4.65%, totaling 47.64%, applied to most sugar exporters from these five countries that use raw sugar originating from Thailand.
According to the Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association (VSSA) and the General Department of Vietnam Customs, from January 1, 2020, when Vietnam officially abolished tariff quotas on sugar imports from ASEAN countries under ATIGA commitments, sugar imported from Thailand reached 1.2 million tons, surging 330% over the same period of 2020 and accounting for about half of sugar consumed in Vietnam (from 2.1-2.3 tons a year). Moreover, since being investigated and taxed AD-AS (aggregate demand - aggregate supply), Thailand's exported sugar has been indirectly exported to the five ASEAN countries. According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the amount of sugar imported from these countries was counted at 865,000 tons, up 280% year on year, while the amount of sugar exported from Thailand to Vietnam declined 70% to 370,000 tons in 2021.
According to VSSA, the price of Thai sugar is 11% lower than that of Vietnamese sugar and this made the former dominate the Vietnamese market in the first six months of the year. Domestic sugar production rose 7.5% from a year earlier to 742,000 tons in the crop year 2021/22, meeting about 35% of the domestic market demand. The imposition of a 47.6% duty on imported sugar (from Thailand and other ASEAN countries) will improve the competitiveness of Vietnam's sugar. Domestic sugar price is forecast to climb 10% from the current sugar price to VND19,000-20,000 per kilo by the end of 2022.
L.A (Vietnam Business Forum)