Zero anti-dumping duties for 8 Vietnamese frozen pangasius fillet exporters: US review

Eight Vietnamese companies implicated in a U.S. anti-dumping review for frozen pangasius fillets exported to the U.S. are eligible for zero anti-dumping duties, according to Vietnam’s Department of Trade Remedies.

The department, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the zero anti-dumping duty eligibility is mentioned in preliminary results of the 20th administrative review (POR 20) carried out by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), which selected two firms as mandatory respondents.

The review covered frozen pangasius fillets exported from Vietnam to the U.S. between August 1, 2022 and July 31, 2023.

The withdrawal of a plaintiff's request for a review of the national tax rate keeps it at $2.39 per kilogram, the department said.

It noted that since the U.S. does not recognize Vietnam as a market economy, the DOC used surrogate values from third countries to calculate the dumping margin for Vietnamese exports.

For the latest review, the DOC selected Indonesia as the surrogate country, reasoning that it has a similar level of economic development to Vietnam as well as large pangasius producers, therefore providing reliable data for assessing Vietnam's production factors.

The Department of Trade Remedies said it viewed the preliminary results as a positive development for Vietnamese tra and basa fish exporters.

The zero anti-dumping duty eligibility reflects a decrease from the official tax rate in the previous review (POR 19), which ranged from $0.00 to $0.18 per kilogram. The DOC is expected to issue the final conclusion of this review within 120 days of the preliminary findings.

The DOC has also announced that parties can submit requests for anti-dumping duty reviews for the next period (POR 21), from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024.

Several Vietnamese companies and U.S. plaintiffs have already submitted review requests, and the DOC is expected to consider initiating the next administrative review sometime next month.