According to Dao Tran Nhan, Director of the Asia-Pacific Department under the MIT, China has become one of Vietnam’s largest trading partners and made-in-Vietnam goods are increasingly popular on this market. Many of Vietnam’s key exports to China, such as crude oil and farm produce, reached more than US$1 billion in turnover.

Especially, Vietnamese fresh and dried fruits started penetrating China’s Northern East provinces.
However, Nhan said, the trade balance is in favour of China, as Vietnam’s export turnover to the neighbouring country accounts for only 0.48 percent of China’s total import value.

In the first five months of this year, Vietnam imported nearly US$8 billion worth of goods from China while grossing over US$2.38 billion from exports. Last year, the country spent up to US$16.4 billion on imports from China in comparison with a total US$21.3 billion in the two-way trade turnover.

The export structure is also in favour of China, as most of Vietnam’s exports are raw materials and unprocessed farm produce, while its imports from China are essential goods of high added value such as petroleum, fertilisers, steel, chemicals, footwear materials, electronics components, automobiles and pharmaceutical products.

To balance the trade between the two countries, Nhan said that the MIT has informed China of 16 goods items Vietnam has potential to produce in large quantities and asked China to design policies to help its businesses to import those goods items.

In addition, to boost the export to China, according to Nhan, Vietnamese businesses should strengthen cooperation with Singaporean, Taiwanese and Western European investors who are planning to move their workshops from China to Vietnam to avoid rising production and labour costs in China.

Also, Vietnamese businesses should export goods items the Chinese people like and take advantages of China’s tax reductions under the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) that took effect early this year.