The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) is scheduled to send their questionnaire to Vietnamese bicycle manufacturers today to decide whether Vietnamese bikes exported to Canada have damaged or threatened to damage the country's bike manufacturing industry.
The manufacturers will have to reply the questionnaire within 20 days, the Vietnamese department said, adding that the hearing will take place in June, and the final report will be released in August.
The CITT started the probe in December last year, after receiving complaints from the Canadian Bicycle Manufacturers Association on injurious dumping, the department said.
Besides the 14 companies in Vietnam, which are mostly Taiwan-owned, businesses from Taiwan, mainland China, the US, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia are also involved in the probe.
The trade ministry advised Vietnamese bike makers to take initiatives to cope with the litigation by carefully preparing data and proving Vietnam's bike exports to Canada, with a modest market share, cannot hurt the local industry.
The ministry also called for domestic bike makers to unify under the Vietnamese Bicycle Manufacturers Association to deal with the litigation.
Vietnam also faced complaints against imports to the EU market in April last year. At the time, the Vietnamese trade ministry denied the allegations, saying Vietnamese bicycles were not dumped on the market. However, if the dumping charges stick, bicycle exports from Vietnam to the EU could be slapped with duties of up to 46.24%, the department said.
Canada is one of Vietnam's major bike export markets, importing more than 328,000 units from Vietnam, worth US$18.4 million, last year, the trade ministry reported. (VNA/ Asia Pulse Pte Limited)
