The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced the preliminary results of its 20th administrative review (POR 20) of the anti-dumping duty order on certain frozen fish fillets exported from Vietnam to the US. The review covered the period between August 1, 2022 and July 31, 2023.

According to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, eight Vietnamese export companies were involved in the review, with two selected as mandatory respondents by the DOC.

Preliminary findings indicate that both mandatory respondents will face an anti-dumping duty rate of $0.00/kg. The remaining six companies also received a duty rate of $0.00/kg. The nationwide rate remains unchanged at $2.39 per kg, as petitioners withdrew their request for a review.

Due to Vietnam's non-market economy status, the DOC used surrogate values from Indonesia to calculate Vietnam's dumping margins. The DOC justified this choice based on Indonesia's comparable economic development, similar pangasius producers, and reliable surrogate data.

The preliminary results are positive for Vietnamese pangasius exporters, as all eight companies under review received a duty rate of $0.00/kg. This is lower than the final rates from the previous review, which ranged from $0.00/kg to $0.18/kg. The DOC is expected to issue the final conclusion for this review within 120 days.

The DOC has also notified relevant parties of the opportunity to request a POR 21 covering the period from August 1, 2023, to July 31, 2024. Several Vietnamese companies and US petitioners have already submitted requests, and the DOC is considering initiating the next administrative review in October 2024.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the United States remains the biggest importer of Vietnamese pangasius.

Vietnam recorded $35 million from exporting pangasius  to the U.S. in August 2024, an increase of 40% year-on-year, thus bringing the total value of this product exported to the U.S. in the first eight months of this year to $226 million, up 23% over the same period last year, raising the country's total export value of pangasius in the eight-month period to nearly $1.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9 %.