The United States continues to extend the time to submit comments in the case of the investigation into the scope of products with wooden cabinets imported from Vietnam

Recently, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced an extension of the time to submit comments and provide counter-information in the case of the investigation into the scope of products with wooden cabinets imported from Vietnam until 4:00 am on July 1, 2022, Vietnam time. However, considering that the above time frame is still limited and not enough for the stakeholders to properly and fully prepare the content according to the required regulations and formats, the DOC has decided to continue to extend the submission deadline of comment and counter-information in the case of product scope investigation for Vietnam’s wooden cabinets until July 7, 2022.

It is known that the case of investigating product scope with wooden cabinets imported from Vietnam is the first case that the US Department of Commerce DOC applied a new regulation effective from November 4, 2022, to investigate the product range in Vietnam.

Accordingly, the Vietnam Department of Trade Remedies specifically announced that businesses need to review and adjust the comments and supplement the information to be consistent with the guidance of the DOC in accordance with regulations and procedures issued by the DOC with the ultimate aim is to ensure the rights and interests of enterprises.

Regarding the new regulation, the DOC noted a few common mistakes in the submission of stakeholder comments as follows:

(i) Do not attach certificates (certifications of accuracy and certifications of service). DOC requires commentaries to attach the above 02 certificates according to the form on page 7 of the Appendix to the DOC Notice.

(ii) Businesses classify the commentary as “Public Version” but the content still contains confidential information. The DOC requires that confidential information must be enclosed in [ ] in the confidential version, and confidential information in [ ] must be deleted in the public version.

(iii) Businesses classify the commentary as “Public/Confidential”. DOC requires to specify whether the comment is confidential or public, it is not possible to choose both forms at the same time.

In addition, the DOC noted that all parties need to submit a Letter of Appearance to register to participate in the case.

Details of the renewal notice and related forms can be downloaded here.

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