Turkey probes tax evasion of plywood imports from Vietnam

01/06/2015 12:00 - 597 Views

HCMC – Turkey is investigating a possible avoidance of anti-dumping tax of plywood imported from Vietnam and Bulgaria since 2010, according to the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA).

VCA cited an announcement of Turkey’s General Directorate of Imports as saying that the investigation was initiated last Wednesday to find out if plywood is shipped from China to Vietnam and Bulgaria for export to Turkey to avoid the plywood anti-dumping tariff that Turkey is imposing on China.

According to VCA, Turkey imposed the anti-dumping tax of US$240 per cubic meter of plywood imported from China in 2006 and then extended the anti-dumping duty period after a five-year review.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Economy, imports of plywood from Vietnam increased sharply to 24,065 cubic meters last year from only 3,250 cubic meters before 2010 and 10,052 cubic meters in 2013. Vietnam accounted for 2% of Turkey’s plywood imports in 2010 but the proportion surged to 8% last year, making Vietnam the fourth biggest plywood exporter of Turkey after Russia, Ukraine and Brazil.

Many export products of Vietnam have been investigated for suspected tax evasion in some markets like the U.S. and EU. One of the reasons is that the export volumes of these products soared after anti-dumping taxes were slapped on Chinese products of the same categories.

This is not the first time Turkey has probed Vietnamese goods.

Turkey announced its anti-dumping investigation into polyester fibers imported from some countries, including Vietnam late last month. Last December, the country launched probes into tax evasion of granite and cold rolled stainless steel welded tubes imported from Vietnam.

Source: Saigon Times