HANOI: Vietnam warned the United States today to ”carefully” consider an eventual cut in its steel and aluminum imports from this Asian nation not to harm bilateral trade relations. The communication was transmitted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam (MIC) to the Department of Commerce (DOC) of the United States, informed the Vietnamese official agency.
The MIC calles Washington to consider the regulations of the World Trade Organization and international practices before taking any decision on the matter, so as not to harm the good trade relations existing between both nations, it pointed.
At the middle of this month, the DOC recommended president Donald Trump to impose strong restrictions on the imports of steel and aluminum that go from global and specific tariffs by country to generalized import quotas.
The so-called Section 232 of Trade consider global tariff options of at least 24 percent for steel products from all suppliers and at least 7.7 percent for aluminum products from all nations.
Recommendations were presented after authorizing Trump an investigation on the situation of the steel and aluminum industries, under a commercial law of 1962 which was not applied since 2001.
As second option, the DOC recommended to tax with a tariff of at least 53 percent the imports of steel from a group of 12 countries, among which Vietnam appears (the others are Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey).
In the case of aluminum, the alternative would be to fix a tax of 23.6 percent to all products coming from China, Hong Kong, Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam.
To announce the decision on steel, Trump has until April 11 at the most and until the 20th to decide on aluminum.
The U.S. President arrived at the White House with a marked protectionist speech that, among other actions, supported the defense of national metallurgy over imports from China and other nations.
The so-called Section 232 of Trade consider global tariff options of at least 24 percent for steel products from all suppliers and at least 7.7 percent for aluminum products from all nations.
Recommendations were presented after authorizing Trump an investigation on the situation of the steel and aluminum industries, under a commercial law of 1962 which was not applied since 2001.
As second option, the DOC recommended to tax with a tariff of at least 53 percent the imports of steel from a group of 12 countries, among which Vietnam appears (the others are Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey).
In the case of aluminum, the alternative would be to fix a tax of 23.6 percent to all products coming from China, Hong Kong, Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam.
To announce the decision on steel, Trump has until April 11 at the most and until the 20th to decide on aluminum.
The U.S. President arrived at the White House with a marked protectionist speech that, among other actions, supported the defense of national metallurgy over imports from China and other nations.
