Export, import, trade surplus and trade deficit have huge impacts on the economy. In the first quarter of 2013, Vietnam had trade turnover with 12 major markets. This proves the considerable focus of Vietnam’s trade relations with major economies in the world.
In the quarter, Vietnam’s export turnover to five biggest markets, also the biggest economies in the world, reached US$13.778 billion, accounting for 46.3 percent of its total exports.
Specifically, it earned US$4.9 billion from exports to the US market in the quarter, an optimistic signal for the belief that this year’s export turnover to the world’s largest economy will surpass US$22 billion. Vietnam always has the largest trade surplus with this market (its trade surplus in 2012 was US$15 billion, expected to be bigger in 2013.
Given the performance in the first quarter, Vietnam’s export value with China was forecast to top US$15 billion this year. Vietnam’s imports from this market have rapidly increased since 2001. It spent US$4.5 billion on imports from China in the quarter and expects to expend US$20 billion in the year.
With the export scale and speed to Japan in the first quarter, Vietnam hopes to fetch over US$15 billion from exports to the world’s third largest economy. With yen/dong exchange sliding from VND260-270 per yen to VND210, Vietnam’s exports to this market tend to slow down and its trade surplus is expected to increase.
Notably, Vietnam’s exports to South Korea valued at nearly US$1.7 billion in the first quarter, up 42.6 percent over the same period last year, and were forecast to top US$7 billion in the year. Meanwhile, the trade deficit with this market approximated US$3.1 billion the in the first three months of 2013. But, the gap was hoped to be smaller because export growth outpaced the import.
In the European Union (EU), the UK and Germany are the two largest importers of Vietnamese goods and we are running trade surplus with these markets. In the first quarter of this year, Vietnam saw a trade surplus of US$432 million with Germany (US$1,718 million in 2012) while the value with the UK was US$722 million. Vietnam expected to bring export revenue to the UK to US$3.5 billion in 2013, higher than the all-time record of US$3.034 billion in 2012).
Five markets that Vietnam bears the biggest trade deficit are China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. These markets took US$18.157 billion from Vietnam, accounting for 61.6 percent of the country’s total import turnover. These Asian markets hold the advantage of low prices, short distance, and low transport fees. However, some countries do not have source technologies or even use their obsolete technologies. For that reason, Vietnam should have policies and actions to avoid being a tech dumpsite.
Some small import markets have big trade turnover with Vietnam. The United Arab Emirates increased 2.6 folds of its spending on Vietnam’s goods, bringing the total trade surplus for Vietnam to US$877 million. Cambodia surprisingly entered the group of 10 largest importers of Vietnamese goods. The neighbouring country boasted trade turnover of US$792 million. Although this quarterly growth rate was not high, Vietnam is likely to fetch US$3 billion from this market, exceeding US$2.831 million in the previous year.
Hong Kong was the 7th largest market of Vietnam in 2012 and ranked 11th in the first quarter. Vietnam hopes to earn US$3.6 billion from this market in 2013.
Taiwan (China) is the leading FDI investor. Vietnam incurred huge trade deficit with this market, reaching US$1,548 million in the first quarter, which was expected to pass US$7 billion in 2013.
Thailand was the 9th largest export market of Vietnam while it was the fifth supplier of imports for Vietnam. Vietnam’s export turnover reached US$793 million and imports valued at US$1.384 billion. Singapore is the sixth largest importer of Vietnamese goods. Hong Kong was also the fourth largest market Vietnam run trade deficit.
PV
Vietnamese
