US has yet to recognize Vietnam as market economy

This means that enterprises exporting Vietnamese goods to the U.S. market will continue to be treated differently in anti-dumping and countervailing investigations of the U.S., according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Trade.

The actual production costs of Vietnamese enterprises will continue not to be recognized, instead, the "surrogate value" of a third country will be used to calculate dumping/subsidy margin in such cases.

If the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) had examined the records and practices in Vietnam objectively and fairly, they would have been able to acknowledge the fact that Vietnam is already a market economy like the 72 other recognized market economies, including major economies such as the U.K, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, India, South Korea, and New Zealand, the ministry noted.

Over the past 20 years, it went on, Vietnam's economy has undergone remarkable changes and development.

Vietnam has successfully signed and put into practice 17 free trade agreements, including new-generation and high-standard free trade agreements with the EU, the countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the U.K., with many extensive and comprehensive commitments from the reduction of duties to the raising of labor standards, environmental protection, sustainable development, government procurement, and transparency.

These changes have been clarified in more than 20,000 pages of information and documents sent by the ministry to the DOC, demonstrating Vietnam's strong progress in all the six criteria set forth by the DOC when considering the graduation to a market economy.

The briefs provided by the ministry for the DOC also fully and consistently demonstrate that Vietnam's level of implementation of these six criteria is at least equal to and generally better than the level of implementation by other countries that have been recognized as market economies; and in fact, equal to or better than countries that have always been considered as market economies.

The ministry noted that 41 U.S. organizations, individuals, business associations, and trade groups have strongly supported recognizing Vietnam as a market economy. These supporters include the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

In the coming time, the ministry will continue to study and analyze the arguments in the DOC’s report assessing the Vietnamese economy so as to continue the supplementation and completion of the briefs and relevant dossiers to submit to the DOC to request another review to recognize the market economy status of Vietnam.

"This will further concretize the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, thereby promoting bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation and bringing practical benefits to businesses and people of both countries," the ministry said.

In addition, the ministry will always support and accompany Vietnamese enterprises exporting to the U.S. market in trade remedy investigations to ensure the highest possible benefits for the Vietnamese business community, it added.

In 2023, the U.S. was Vietnam's largest export market, with exports totaling $97 billion, representing 27% of Vietnam's overall export revenue. Specifically, exports to the U.S. contributed 43% of the total export revenue for textiles, 35% for footwear, 54% for wood and wood products, and 17% for seafood.