EU-Vietnam's Potential Trade Partner

EU-a promising market Recently, a conference on Vietnam-EU trade ties took place in Bruxelles, Belgium, attracting the participation of representatives from the European Commission and Vietnam. Fourteen Vietnamese commercial counselors in EU countries (including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Bungary Sweden, Republic of Czech and Romania) and several representatives from the local Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also attended the event. At the meeting, the EU and EC introduced their current policies to boost trade ties with countries across the world, comprising of Vietnam.

The EU bloc includes 27 member countries which cover a total area of more than 4 million square metres and has 460 million people. The bloc’s GDP is estimate at nearly US$15,000 billion, accounting for some 27 per cent of the world’s total GDP. The EU’s export turnover with foreign countries reaches US$2,800 billion, making up 25 per cent of the global figure. EU countries’ total import and export turnover with the world climbs up to over US$5,000 billion, equal to 45 per cent of the world’s total figure. The EU boats advantages in service import and export. Of which, the EU’s service export value holds about 43.8 per cent of the world’s and is 2.5 folds higher than the US, meanwhile, the service export value accounts for 42.7 per cent of the world’s. The EU’s aggregate foreign direct investment into other countries makes up 47 per cent of the world’s. Its policies focus on removing trade barriers and simplifying tariff barriers. The bloc is accelerating multilateral, regional and bilateral cooperation with nations worldwide. EU has given the General System of Preferences to 143 countries and offered special priorities to poor countries.

 

Vietnam is seen as a potential market with 80-million population and high economic growth. Besides, it has young population and high purchase power.

 

 At present, EU as well as the US is being seriously affected by the global economic slowdown. Vietnam is also facing some difficulties in cooperation with EU. Last year, the bloc decided to lift Vietnam’s footwear and garment and textile products out of the product list of countries offered GSP between 2009 and 2012. EU is imposing anti-dumping taxes on Vietnamese leather shoes. Currently, the tax supervision is being carried out.

 

Boosting bilateral trade According to the MoIT, over the past nine months, bilateral trade between Vietnam and EU has grown relatively well. The total two-way trade turnover is estimated to amount to over US$76 billion for nine years. Of which, Vietnam exported products worth US$50.4 billion to EU and imported products valued at US$26.1 billion from the bloc. EU is among Vietnam’s trade surplus markets. Vietnam’s main exports to EU include footwear, garment and textile, coffee, wood products and seafood. These are also products bringing Vietnam the highest turnover. Meanwhile, the country mostly imports machines, medicines, garment material, steel and iron and fertilizer from EU.

 

Vietnam and EU have signed more than 10 important economic and trade agreements. This year, the MoIT aims to boost average export turnover growth to the world to 13 per cent compared to last year, with 15 per cent to EU. To reach the goal, economists said, Vietnam has to accelerate exports to EU, particularly highly competitive ones like electronics, electrical equipment, engineering products, agricultural products, garment and textile and handicraft products. Vietnam should also study EU’s trade policies to give advice to local agencies and enterprises to increase exports to EU. It is also necessary for the country to import important materials from EU for domestic production.