Posted on 03/02/2004 2:12:55 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Ha Noi, March 2 (VNA)- The tariff rates levied on six categories of iron and steel are cut to zero, according to the Finance Ministry's decision issued on Monday.
This is the second such decision made by the Finance Ministry in three days in an effort to ease the domestic price hike. The first decision signed on Feb. 27 already halved the rates down to between 3 and 20 percent from between five and 40 percent.
The decision was warmly welcomed by enterprises, saying they can now make massive imports of pig iron to stabilise production, said Pham Chi Cuong, Deputy President of the Viet Nam Steel Association (VNSA).
The pig iron import prices now stand at 450 - 460 USD per tonne.
The move will help enterprises save an estimated 700,000 VND per tonne, thus keeping the steel prices stable at 8,000 VND per kg, said Cuong.
The southern market had immediate positive response with the prices sold by the Pomina Steel Company reduced by 300,000 VND per tonne of steel at the closing of the day.
The new decision however removes some advantages given by existing rules to those enterprises which are allowed to import steel and pig iron from other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with tariffs just halved to imports from non-member markets.
A number of pig iron projects are expected to begin production by 2005, each with a capacity of between 200,000 and 300,000 tonnes a year. The Hoa Phat Steel Factory in the Red River delta province of Hung Yen will start operation within June or July this year.
But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.
~Karl Marx, "On the Question of Free Trade" - January 9, 1848
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