The State Bank of Viet Nam granted permission on Thursday to five credit institutions to maintain compulsory reserves for Vietnamese dong deposits at below regulated levels for a five-month period beginning February 1.

The Mekong Development Commercial Bank, Mekong Delta Housing Bank, Agribank, LienViet Post Bank and the Central People's Credit Fund will be allowed to maintain compulsory reserves 20 per cent below the levels required pursuant to Circular No 20/2010 TT-NHNN issued by the State Bank in September 2010.

The central bank said that it had eased the requirements for these institutions because they fulfilled a significant public policy role, lending heavily to agricultural producers and for rural development projects.

Under Circular No 20, each credit institution would be required to ensure that at least 40 per cent of its loans be made for agriculture and rural development in order to enjoy the lower compulsory reserves requirement.

The designated credit institutions would now be required to submit monthly reports on lending made for agriculture and rural development purposes, the State Bank said. It also ordered its provincial branches to set compulsory reserve levels for these credit institutions.

Currently, commercial banks and other credit institutions are required to maintain compulsory reserves of 3 per cent against deposits with a maturity of under 12 months, and 1 per cent against term deposits of 12 months or more.

Dumping claim over clothes hangers

The US Department of Commerce has instituted an anti-dumping action and filed countervailing duty petitions against steel garment hangers from Viet Nam and Taiwan.

The preliminary phase of the investigation process was commenced on December 29 and is slated for completion on February 21, the department reported.

Under the petitions, anti-dumping margins for made-in-Viet Nam steel garment hangers ranged from 82.87 per cent to 159.20 per cent.

Petitioners included the US producers M&B Metal Products Co Inc, Innovative Fabrication LLC/Indy Hanger, and US Hanger Co LLC.

India will be likely the third country which US authorities use to compare costs for production during the investigation since Viet Nam is not recognised by the US as a market economy.

About 10 Vietnamese hanger makers have jointly hired lawyers to respond to the action.

"If the local producers don't prepare documents comprehensively to follow-up the lawsuit, it is possible that anti-dumping tariffs may be high," said Dinh Anh Tuyet of the IDVN Law Office.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, after the investigation, the US Department of Commerce will issue a preliminary determination in June and then the US International Trade Commission will make a final determination in July.

This marks the third time that Viet Nam has been hit with claims involving both anti-dumping tariffs and countervailing duties. The first was the action against Vietnamese polyethylene plastics (PE) in 2009 and the second involved carbon-steel pipe fittings. Vietnamese PE producers were applied high anti-dumping tariffs on the grounds that enterprises' documents did not satisfy the requirements of the US Department of Commerce, said Tuyet.