Vietnam begins probe into Thai sugar for circumventing anti-dumping measures

Imports from Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar jumped by nearly five times year-on-year to 527,200 tons in the period from October 2020 to June this year, according to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam.

This was the period that Vietnam was investigating Thai sugar for dumping and subsidizing.

In the period sugar imports from Thailand fell by nearly 38 percent to 595,000 tons.

The sugar industry has provided evidence indicating that Thai sugar came into Vietnam through the five countries, the authority said.

The average price of sugar exported from Thailand to Vietnam was $334 per ton in December last year, lower than the average market price in that country of $755 and even lower than its cost of production, which was $410.

The Thai government last year subsidized its sugar farmers with $325 million, an action challenged by Brazil at the World Trade Organization.

Vietnam imposed preliminary anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Thai sugar on Feb. 9 and gave the final ruling on Jun. 15.

The country applied an anti-dumping and countervailing duty of 47.64 percent on sugar originating from Thailand that would last five years.

Vietnamese companies and farmers have been complaining that cheap Thai sugar flooding the market has caused major difficulties for them.