HA NOI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will impose a 5 per cent duty on imported vegetable oil including refined soya and palm oil.

The move is seen as a temporary self-defense measure in case the imports of these products increase too rapidly posing a threat to the domestic production.

The vegetable oil subjected to the import levy belongs to trade codes of 1507.90.90, 1511.90.91, 1511.90.92 and 1511.90.99.

The decision will take effect on May 7, 2013 and last less than 200 days.

According to MoIT, the Ministry's Competition Administration Department has carried inspections on the application of safeguard measures on these vegetable oils. The result showed that domestic products have similar quality as imported ones. The Ministry reported that in 2010, the import volume of this commodity increased 16.71 over 2009, and continued seeing year-on-year increases of 23.95 per cent and 45.83 per cent in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

The rapid increase in the vegetable oil imports to Viet Nam recently has led to the sharp falls in domestic enterprises' market share, turnover and profit, thus making enterprises suffer. — VNS