Under Decision No.686/QD-BCT issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the duration for applying this safeguard duty is two years, starting from March 7 this year.
After two years, the ministry will consider the socio-economic impact and decide whether to extend the safeguard measures or not.
Accordingly, the imported fertilizers in the list will be subject to tax imposed as per the schedule below.
From March 7, 2018 to March 6, 2019, the safeguard duty is VND 1,128,531 (USD 50) per ton. This amount is equal to the difference between the actual selling price and the selling price at the break-even point of the domestic industry, equivalent to only 60 per cent of the tax rate that Vietnam is entitled to apply in accordance with the provisions of WTO and the laws of the country.
From March 7, 2019 to March 6, 2020, the tax rate dropped to VND 1,072,104 per ton.
The investigation and application of safeguard measures on imported DAP and MAP fertilizers were carried out in accordance with the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Safeguards and Ordinance No.42/2002 on safeguards in the import of foreign goods into Vietnam.
Earlier, on March 31, 2017, some domestic fertilizer producers requested that trade defense measures be applied to a number of imported fertilizer products due to their negative impact on domestic production.
Based on the dossier appraisal results, customs data and provisions of the law on safeguards, the MoIT on May 12 last year issued Decision No.1682A/QD-BCT on initiating a fertilizer dumping investigation and considering the application of safeguard measures on DAP and MAP imported fertilizer products into Vietnam.
The preliminary investigation concluded that the imported goods seriously harmed domestic production. Based on this, on August 4, the MoIT decided to apply temporary safeguard measures on some DAP and MAP fertilizer products imported into Vietnam, with the applied temporary safeguard tax being VND 1,855,790 per ton. The decision was effective from August 19, 2017, to March 6, 2018.
In the final investigation stage, the MoIT decided to extend the deadline for investigating cases of applying safeguard measures for imported DAP and MAP fertilizers for two more months before issuing the final report.
The final investigation showed that the imported DAP and MAP fertilizers caused price pressures and price hikes on domestic goods during 2013-16 period.
Source: VNA