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WTO TRADE - Vietnam tackles US at WTO over shrimp imports
Vietnam has launched its first dispute at the World Trade Organisation with a case against US anti-dumping measures on its key exports of shrimp.
The country only joined the global trade arbiter three years ago, and its economy like China's has benefited strongly from membership in the world trading system and its rules.
The trade dispute with the United States not only has symbolic significance but defends a product that brought in some $1.5 billion in exports last year.
It also pits Hanoi against a large number of Vietnamese-American shrimpers who operate off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
No one was available for comment at Vietnam's mission to the WTO, and details of the dispute were not immediately clear.
Vietnamese shrimp exporters currently face US anti-dumping duties ranging from zero to about 26 percent.
They have complained in the past about the controversial US method of calculating anti-dumping duties known as zeroing, which has been condemned repeatedly by WTO courts and rejected by all other WTO members.
"The WTO has concluded that the US was wrong in applying the zeroing method in precedent cases. I can see high possibility of Vietnam winning the case," Nguyen Huu Dung, deputy chair of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), told the VietNamNet website last year.
Vietnam will also gain useful experience in international trade litigation from fighting a WTO case, Dung said.
According to documents filed by Vietnam with the WTO, Vietnam is seeking consultations with the United States – the first formal stage in a dispute.
A spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative's office said they were reviewing Vietnam's request for talks, but provided no further information.
If the two sides fail to resolve the dispute through bilateral consultations in 60 days, Vietnam can ask the WTO to set up a panel to rule on the case.
Plummeting prices
VASEP estimates Vietnam exported 190,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2009, up 7 percent in volume and 1 percent in value. Besides the US, the main markets include Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance, which represents shrimp fishermen and processors in eight US states, won anti-dumping duties on imports from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam in 2004 after a US Commerce Department investigation found those countries guilty of unfair pricing practices.
That action helped stabilise an industry hit hard by plummeting prices. But annual US administrative reviews have weakened the duties over the years and US shrimpers are now struggling with historically low prices, the group's executive director, John Williams, told Reuters.
US duties on shrimp from Thailand had such little effect that the Southern Shrimp Alliance recently negotiated a deal for the Thai shrimp industry to pay US shrimpers at least $100 million to have the duties dropped, Williams said.
However, that agreement is opposed by a rival US group, the American Shrimp Processors Association, which is urging the Commerce Department to block it, he said.VNS
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT - Hitachi focuses on producing elevators, escalators in Vietnam
The Asian Hitachi Group plans to expand production scale for producing elevators and escalators in Vietnam in 2010, after officially started this business line in September 2008, Shigeki Akamatsu, the group's chief representative in Vietnam.
He also said that Hitachi would hand over 10 sets of elevators and escalators for the trade centres that have been under construction at present in Vietnam within this month. It was considered the group's strategy to develop this business scope in Vietnam because recently, the amount of construction projects in this sector has increased significantly.
The finished products of elevators and escalators offered by Hitachi Group has been used in large construction projects in Asian region and Middle East such as Changi International Airport in Singapore, Atlantis hotel system in United Arab Emirates, and China-based Shanghai International Financial Centre.
In the coming time, Hitachi will put into operation the electric cable factory in Vietnam. At present, the group has two representative offices and one manufacturing factory in Vietnam, serving in various sectors from household electronic equipment to those used in industrial sector.
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TRADE - Siemens sees success in Vietnam
Vietnam is Siemens most successful market in the region, said president of the world's leading electrical and electronic company in Vietnam.
Despite the thumping the international economic crisis gave markets around the globe, the Germany-based giant retained high growth in Vietnam last year, said Erdal Elver, though official 2009 statistics have not been released yet.
Elver told Thanh Nien Weekly that Siemens gained more orders from local customers than previous years and orders to supply major energy projects and a metro rail system in HCM City counted for 477 million euros on the Vietnamese market in fiscal 2007 and 2008.
"We hope the growth will continue this year," said the president, adding that Siemens had just received a trading license in Vietnam.
The president said the amended license meant the behemoth company could now trade directly with customers in Vietnam instead of via its headquarters in Germany.
He added that Siemens would focus on its products businesses, which grew rapidly in sales last year. He said health care products would be its focus investment target this year as the sector offered strong demand from hospitals and health institutes in 2009.THNHNEWS
ENERGY - Vietnam heeds world call to conserve energy
Dwellers in 20 cities across Vietnam are likely to turn off home lights and unnecessary electric equipment for at least an hour on March 27 in response to Earth Hour, a worldwide call to save energy, the Vietnam news agency said Thursday.
This was confirmed by the World Wide Fund for Nature in Vietnam (WWF Vietnam) and the Department of Hydrometeorology and Climate Change of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in a press briefing.
According to the agencies, the Earth Hour programme this year is being expanded in Vietnam, with 20 cities joining the campaign in comparison with six last year.
The state-owned Electricity of Vietnam corporation (EVN) will officially take part in the programme as one of the major sponsors and ambassadors of the programme.
As one of the five countries to be hardest hit by climate change, Vietnam needs to take action and make strong commitment so as to have a stronger voice in the international arena on emission reduction issues, said WWF Vietnam director Tran Minh Hien.
First launched in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour, an initiative on climate change spearheaded by the WWF--has received a worldwide response. Last year, the campaign involved nearly one billion citizens in over 4,000 cities in 88 countries.VNS
According to EVN deputy general director Nguyen Manh Hung, the state electricity group will take the occasion to promote the government's energy saving programme.
It will prepare technical information on how to use energy most safely and efficiently for awareness-raising handouts to be disseminated among schools and enterprises.
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