Cashew industry proposes import tax on cashew kernels According to Vinacas, Việt Nam needs to negotiate soon and sign bilateral trade agreements with African countries. That will have import and export tax exemptions for each other's goods, including raw cashew nuts exported from Africa to Việt Nam. HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas) has sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to propose a tax on cashew kernels imported from Africa to protect domestic cashew processing. According to Vinacas, Việt Nam needs to negotiate soon and sign bilateral trade agreements with African countries. That will have import and export tax exemptions for each other's goods, including raw cashew nuts exported from Africa to Việt Nam. In case no bilateral trade agreements have been reached, Việt Nam should impose a 25 per cent import tax on cashew kernels like India, Vinacas said. India imposes an import tax of 25 per cent on Việt Nam's products exported to this market to protect its domestic cashew industry. Meanwhile, Việt Nam has no similar measures for protecting domestic production. Currently, cashew-growing African countries are developing cashew processing industries, gradually reducing raw cashew nut exports by imposing high export taxes. In addition, they offer many preferential and supportive policies to attract investment in cashew processing factories, including export tax exemption for cashew kernels. Many enterprises have taken those advantages to build preliminary processing plants in African countries to produce cashew kernels for export enjoying tax exemption. Now, importers of cashew kernels to Việt Nam are mainly FDI enterprises. Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises must invest VNĐ100-500 billion in a completed processing plant from raw cashew nuts to kernels. They must import raw cashew nuts at high prices because Africa imposes an export tax on raw cashews and exempts export taxes on cashew kernels. That makes Vietnamese firms lose their competitive advantage.