Vietnam Overseas

A federal grand jury in Mobile, Ala., on Thursday indicted three individuals for conspiring to mislabel and smuggle more than 325,000 pounds of seafood to avoid paying tariffs and defraud customers, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The three individuals are Karen Blyth of Paradise Valley, Ariz., co-owner and president of CSE in Phoenix and RF in Pensacola, Fla.; David Phelps of Scottsdale, Ariz., co-owner and VP of CSE and RF; and John Popa of Pensacola, co-owner and VP of CSE and RF.

The three individuals allegedly used CSE to supply RF, among others, with mislabeled seafood that, in turn, was sold to RF’s customers in Florida and Alabama. RF then sold the mislabeled seafood and substituted less expensive product for more expensive product. The three individuals allegedly removed fish from boxes that were correctly labeled and placed it into boxes that were falsely labeled or had no description.

Blyth and Phelps also allegedly arranged for CSE to purchase hundreds of thousands of pounds of frozen pangasius fillets from a Vietnamese company, knowing that the catfish would be mislabeled to avoid tariffs of up to 63.88 percent.

To do this, the two individuals allegedly provided the Vietnamese company with false shipping labels and generated purchase orders and other false documentation to conceal the product. Blyth, Phelps and Popa then had RF purchase the mislabeled seafood in small increments from CSE to sell to its Alabama and Florida customers.

The maximum penalty for each smuggling count is up to 20 years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for each violation of the Lacey Act includes up to five years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for each misbranding count includes up to three years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

The case is being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama.

Vietnam News Service reported that domestic steel pipes producers are hoping to increase exports of steel pipes with a diameter of less than 10 inches to the US, saying the market offers great potential due to high demand and low supply.

Industry insiders said that demand for steel pipes in the US was huge, with not many countries and territories, including Taiwan, mainland China and Viet Nam, manufacturing the product. With an export turnover of more than USD 2.7 billion of steel pipes, also known as oil industry tubular goods and often used in oil wells, to the US in 2008, China has been among the US’s largest steel pipe suppliers.

However, the US Department of Commerce’s recent decision to impose anti dumping duties ranging from 10.36% to 15.78% on Chinese exports of steel pipes is expected to leave the Chinese less competitive.

Mr Le Vinh Son director of the Son Ha International Joint Stock Co said that his company would seize the chance and expect to export roughly 2,000 tonnes of steel pipes monthly to the US during the next two years.

Mr Nguyen Tien Nghi VC of Viet Nam Steel Association said that Hoa Phat, Viet Duc and SeAH Steel were among Vietnamese companies currently manufacturing steel pipes. The latter two began exporting steel pipes to the US late last year, with annual export revenue totaling several million dollars.

However, authorities also warned domestic steel pipe producers that Viet Nam was also among six countries which faced complaints from US steel pipe producers over alleged dumping.

US trade authorities have yet to investigate steel pipes imported from Viet Nam, as total steel pipe imports from Viet Nam make up only 2.55% of the US steel market. According to US rules, if the percentage abruptly climbed to 3%, they would launch an anti dumping probe.

But sources from steel pipe manufacturers believe that Viet Nam’s steel pipe exports to such a huge market as the US would be extremely unlikely to break the 3% threshold.

(Sourced from Vietnam News Service)

Vietnamese mobile operator Vinaphone, a subsidiary of state-owned telecoms group Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT), has contracted US equipment supplier Motorola to expand its GSM network, Viet Nam News reports. Under the agreement, Motorola will deploy an additional 3,000 base station transceivers in the next two years to expand the cellco’s 2G coverage and increase capacity in the country’s southern and northern provinces, including the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. ‘With a strong relationship stretching back some twelve years, we are very pleased to continue our long-term cooperation with Vinaphone and to be able to ensure mobile users in Vietnam continual access to high quality mobile services,’ commented Ray Owen, general director of Motorola Vietnam, adding, ‘The new deployment will extend coverage and increase the capacity of Vinaphone’s GSM network, meeting the rapidly growing demand for mobile communications services in the country.’

In a separate story, Hanoi Moi reports that Vinaphone added ten million mobile subscribers during 2009, bringing its total customer base to 26.7 million. The company expects subscriber growth to slow to around five million during 2010.

HANOI, Jan 25 (Bernama) — Hanoi plans to attract around US$180 million into its industrial zones (IZs) this year, according to the Hanoi IZs and Export-Processing Zones Management Board (HIEMB), the Vietnam news agency reported Monday.

The city will facilitate businesses’ operation to help them post an increase of 11-13 per cent in revenues and a rise of 12-13 per cent in export value compared to last year.

To reach these goals, the HIEMB has been speeding up investment promotion to present Hanoi’s industrial development potentials and its incentives to investors alongside simplifying administrative procedures and upgrading infrastructure.

In 2009, the HIEMB licensed and approved capital adjustments for 16 domestically-invested projects worth 728 billion VND (US$39.42 million) and 27 foreign-invested projects with a total registered capital of US$91.4 million.

Hanoi’s IZs have so far attracted 508 investment projects, including 240 foreign-invested investments with a total registered capital of over US$3.5 billio and 268 domestically-invested investments worth over 11 trillion VND (US$595 million).

– BERNAMA