Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Legal Department on June 26 officially launched the Trade Remedies Council (TRC) to provide support to domestic associations and enterprises in coping with possible global trade disputes.

In the past few years, Vietnamese exports have increased significantly but export growth has also brought about risks, said the chamber’s Nguyen Thi Thu Trang at the launching ceremony.

Trang outilined anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes and safe-guard measures as popular tools that foreign countries have used to protect their local production sectors.

To date, Vietnam has faced 31 anti-dumping lawsuits aimed at exports such as bicycles, catfish, shrimp, fluorescent lamps and leather shoes. There were about 4,000 anti-dumping measures imposed by World Trade Organisation (WTO) members from 20005 up to now.

In addition, the country’s WTO commitment to open up its market has created opportunities for foreign-made products to penetrate into the domestic market, and that might result in the unhealthy competition and mass importation of foreign-made goods.

Meanwhile, most Vietnamese associations and enterprises have failed to attach enough importance to using anti-dumping tools to protect themselves in the context of global integration. Due to limited awareness on the issue, Vietnamese enterprises remained passive in anti-dumping lawsuits, resulting in a loss of export markets.

Preparing for potential anti-dumping cases in this regard would also help local companies become more professional in their operations, said Trang.

The council was established with aim to assist enterprises to better address possible anti-dumping cases and other trade disputes. The council will give associations and enterprises direct and initially free-of-charge consultations on anti-dumping cases in the domestic and foreign markets.

It will help to increase awareness on global trade disputes through training and conferences as well as update documents on these issues.