The Vietnamese Steel Association (VSA) called, with a high incidence of steel import fraud, and the government should maintain a series of steel quality and management controls, especially for imported steel, to support the local steel industry. The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) claims that this year plans to cancel 17 areas of administrative departments, including the steel department to ease the demand for steel industry.
As early as December 2015, the Vietnamese government issued a notice on the domestic and imported steel quality management clearly to prevent some exporters to use zero tariff imports, causing damage to local manufacturers. Trade fraud includes imports of 0.0008% boron and other alloy steel, which can be put into the steel as an alloy to enjoy zero tariff imports.
Chairman of the VSA said the hope that the Government to maintain the notice requirements to support the local steel industry. Strengthen the quality of imported steel to the stability of the domestic market has been effective, Vietnam imported 23 million tons of steel last year which ranked fifth in imports. Association recommended to continue to limit the production of steel imports, which can be produced domestic, while simplifying the domestic production is not yet such as hot-rolled and cold-rolled non-alloy steel imports to ensure that the downstream industry needs.
In particular, the association pointed out that the import of steel from China as an alloy steel, enjoy zero tariff, which is an unequal competition to local manufacturer and importer. On the other hand, due to many countries take protection of steel and other trade measures to China, Vietnam's exports to the rest of the world steel may be suspected to circumvent anti-dumping duties.