The products proposed for investigation against defensive tax evasion are steel pipes coded HS 7306.61 and 7306.30 which have been imported from Vietnam.

The plaintiffs include major US steel pipe manufacturers, namely Nucor Corporation, Bull Moose Tube, and Maruichi Steel Corporation.

The American firms have accused Vietnam of importing hot rolled steel (HRS), the main raw material used to produce steel pipes, from mainland China, Taiwan (China), the Republic of Korea, and India, and then simply processing it into steel pipes for export to the US. Firms making the accusation believe that Vietnamese processors had done so in order to evade the respective trade remedy tax that the US is levying on the aforementioned countries.

According to US law, related parties have a total of 30 days to submit comments and provide counter-information to the US investigative agency from the date when the probe into the case is initiated.

Data compiled by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) indicates that the total export value of Vietnamese products proposed for investigation in the US stands at an estimated US$57.6 million for last year.

As of 2021, Vietnamese export goods had been subject to a total of 208 foreign trade remedy investigation cases.

The US has launched 41 defensive probe cases for Vietnamese exports compared to 28 for India, 24 for Turkey, 18 for Canada, 11 for Indonesia, 10 for Malaysia and 8 for Thailand.

Source: VOV