Vietnam has imposed an additional import duty of 10.9% on wire rod imports from many origins. It is a duty imposed to prevent the circumvention of existing safeguard measures on wire rod, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry & Trade official sources tell Kallanish.
The duty of 10.9% will be levied on wire rod products categorised under HS code 7213.91.90, 7217.10.10, 7217.10.29, 7229.90.99 and 9839.10.00. The duty will be in effect from 28 May 2019 to 21 March 2020.
The Vietnamese government imposed a definitive safeguard measure of 15.4% duty on wire rod and rebar effective 2 August 2016. Duties have been sliding since and the current safeguard duty is 10.9% until 21 March 2020 (see Kallanish 5 Nov 2018).
One way in which the safeguard measure was being circumvented is that chemical composition of the wire rod was altered. The steel would then be passed off as alloy steel, a Hanoi-based industry source says.
Traders were importing wire rod and using the HS codes now identified in this latest ruling whereas the previous safeguard measure did not cover these HS codes, a Vietnamese trader says. However, the additional duty has "... no meaning," he says. “Demand is low in the domestic market so there are very few imports,” he tells Kallanish .
If the safeguard duty is not extended, they will be 0% effective 22 March 2020. The petitioners in the original case were Hoa Phat Joint Stock Co, Southern Steel Co, Thai Nguyen Iron & Steel Joint Stock Corp and Vietnam Italy Steel Co.
Source:- Kallanish.com
