VN exporters ask Japan to remove tuna import duty
THE VIETNAM Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has submitted a proposal to the government to renegotiate the high import duty on Vietnamese tuna products in Japan.
The association has proposed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) that it negotiate to remove Japan’s import tariff on Vietnamese tuna, as has been done in the case of Thailand and the Philippines, so that Vietnamese tuna products can be sold at more competitive rates in the Japanese market.
Japan is one of Vietnam’s eight major tuna export markets, VASEP said. However, since 2013, Vietnamese tuna exports to Japan have reduced mainly because of higher import tariffs on Vietnamese tuna products against those imported from countries such as Thailand and the Philippines.
As per data with Japan’s customs office and VASEP’s partners in Japan, for canned skipjack (code 1604.14.010) exported to Japan, Thailand has enjoyed a preferential tariff of 3.2 per cent from April 2009 and 1.1 per cent from April 2011. In April 2012, the import tariff was removed completely under the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA), reports vietnamplus.vn.
In comparison, Vietnam’s canned skipjack gets charged an import tariff of 6.4 per cent though the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) came into effect in October 2009. As a result, Vietnam’s canned tuna products cannot compete with Thai tuna products in Japan, the VASEP said.
The situation is similar for other products such as canned yellowfin tuna (code 1604.14.092) and frozen tuna loin (code 1604.14.099) imported to Japan. The import duty for those products shipped from Thailand to Japan was 4.8 per cent from April 2009, reduced to 1.6 per cent in April 2011 and removed in April 2012.
