Australia and New Zealand Will Treat Vietnam as Market Economy for Antidumping Purposes

Australia and New Zealand have decided to treat Vietnam as a market economy for antidumping purposes. The decision was made in connection with the recent signing of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA).

Australia and New Zealand are the two first countries to recognize Vietnam as a market economy since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in 2007.

The U.S. is unlikely to change its treatment of Vietnam as a non-market economy for several years since the U.S.-Vietnam WTO Agreement specifies that the U.S. can continue to treat Vietnam as a non-market economy for up to 12 years after accession, or until it is able to meet the economic criteria for a "market economy" designation.

U.S. antidumping law requires the Department of Commerce to calculate the "normal value" of goods produced from non-market economies using surrogate values from market economy countries in order to value the "factors of production" used to produce the subject merchandise. Use of the non-market economy methodology often leads to very high antidumping duty rates.

In addition to Vietnam, the U.S. treats China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan non-market economy for antidumping purposes.