United States yet to recognize Vietnam’s market economy status

This means that Vietnamese businesses exporting goods to the US market will continue to face discrimination in US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, the MoIT said in an announcement after the US Department of Commerce (DOC) issued its conclusion on August 2, 2024.

The actual production costs of Vietnamese businesses continue not to be recognized, but the replacement value of a third country must be used to calculate the dumping margin, it said.

If the DOC had reviewed records and practices in Vietnam objectively and fairly, it would have been able to acknowledge the fact that Vietnam is already a market economy as recognized by 72 other economies, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand, it continued.

The MoIT noted that over the past 20 years, the economy of Vietnam has undergone remarkable changes and development. Vietnam has signed and enforced 17 free trade agreements (FTAs), including new generation FTAs with the European Union, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) countries, and the United Kingdom with many extensive and comprehensive commitments from tax cuts to labour standards, environmental protection, sustainable development, government procurement, and transparency.

These changes have been clarified in more than 20,000 pages of documents that the MoIT sent to the DOC, demonstrating Vietnam’s strong progress on all six criteria set by the US side when considering recognition of a country with a market economy.

The arguments that the MoIT provided to the DOC also fully and consistently demonstrate that Vietnam’s level of implementation of these six criteria is at least equal to and often better than that of other countries that have been recognized as market economies. And reality has proven this.

Judging from the arguments, the MoIT said the recognition of a market economy for Vietnam, based on the specific criteria of US law, is an objective and fair reality.

In its announcement, the MoIT thanked 41 US organizations, individuals, and business and trade associations, including the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), for expressing strong support for recognizing Vietnam as a market economy, and hoped to receive their continued support for the endeavour.

The MoIT will carefully examine and analyze the DOC report to supplement and complete the arguments for submission to the DOC again, in an attempt to concretize the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, thereby promoting bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation, bringing practical benefits for businesses and people of the two countries.

In addition, it will accompany Vietnamese businesses exporting to the US market in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations to ensure their highest interests.