Official rejects VN’s violations of WTO price policy

The Finance Ministry’s Circular 122/2010/TT-BTC does not break any of Vietnam’s price commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), said an official.

Director of the ministry’s Price Management Department Nguyen Tien Thoa said the document strictly adheres to the Government’s Decree 75/2008/ND-CP of June 9, 2008, which defines milk as a commodity whose prices should be stabilised. It amends and supplements earlier Circular 104 in order to prevent unreasonable price hike of imported powdered milk.

The Finance Ministry did not promulgate any new policy, Thoa stressed.

Circular 122, which will take effect as of October 1, stipulates that importers and traders must register and report prices of powdered milk for under six-year-old children to the price management agency.

The Finance Ministry’s explanation followed feedbacks from several foreign-invested milk trading companies and the Ambassadors of Australia, Canada , New Zealand , the US and the European Union.

In a common letter addressed to the ministry, the ambassadors said the new price control mechanism would affect Vietnam ’s efforts towards a market economy as well as its performance of WTO regulations.

It could also hamper the attraction of foreign investment and development of the labour market, the diplomats said.- VNA

Tags: WTO price policy