VIS acted lawfully, but action not to be encouraged

The fact that VIS ordered a Chinese steel mill to make steel under the VIS trademark does not violate the law, but this should not be encouraged, the Prime Minister has concluded.
The Government’s office on May 29 released dispatch No 2909, announcing the Prime Minister’s conclusion on the VIS case, responding to the appeal of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) about the case.

The Prime Minister said that VIS’s move did not violate the law. However, in the current context, when the steel supply has exceeded the demand, the move has had bad impacts on local production. The Government does not encourage enterprises to follow VIS’s move.
The conclusion by the Prime Minister has put an end to the prolonged dispute on whether VIS violated the law. VIS’s move has been facing strong opposition from local steel producers, who said that the move would kill local production. If all steel producers ordered foreign steel mills to make steel under their trademarks there would be no more steel producers in Vietnam.

Before the Prime Minister gave the final conclusion about the case, the Ministry of Trade and the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) had expressed their viewpoints that VIS’s move was legal. However, VSA, which represents many domestically owned and foreign invested enterprises, did not accept the ministries’ viewpoints, and decided to lodge an appeal directly with the Prime Minister. VSA’s members said that if VIS’s move was tolerated, no investor would inject money in steel projects any more.

The Prime Minister has asked the Ministries of Trade and Finance to consider adjusting taxes on steel in case the overly high imports caused bad influences on local production. The two ministries have also been asked to consider measures to prevent steel dumping, which may affect local production, and prevent price escalation, which is unbeneficial to customers.

The Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Science and Technologies to instruct the Vietnam Directorate for Standards and Quality (Stameq) to keep strict control over imported steel to ensure the quality of imports.

The General Department of Customs (GDC) has to examine the quality of steel imports at border gates. As for the import of steel which bears Vietnamese trademarks but is produced in other countries, importers will have to show a certificate of product quality granted by competent agencies of these countries.

The Ministry of Trade will be responsible for inspecting the labeling of imported products before they are circulated on the market.

Source: VNE