As per the information release by VASEP Vietnamese firms have to pay a high tax rate of USD 4.22 per kg, a 100-120 per cent jump from last year, even though the fish sells for a lot less than the tax in the American market. As a result pangasius companies will suffer heavy losses as well as face additional barriers in the US market.
VASEP Vice President Nguyen Huu Dzung argued that the anti-dumping tariff put forward by US is unreasonable because the DOC chose to compare the Philippines, a country that hosts only a few fish breeding areas, with Vietnam. Meanwhile aquaculture industry in the Mekong Delta grew tremendously.
Now VASEP has decided to deal with the problem by starting to get in touch with relevant agencies and companies to ask the DOC to go back and reassess its anti-dumping taxes on pangasius imported from Vietnam. According to US DOC a decision will be taken each year as per regulations on whether to increase or cut anti-dumping taxes for Vietnamese firms. In the past, the department had applied low anti-dumping tariffs of between 0 and 0.52 per cent on tra fish originating from Vietnam, a practice that helped ease the flow of tra fish into the US market.
