VN, U.S. witness spectacular trade growth

Pary General Secretary, State President Nguyen Phu Trong (R) shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump, Ha Noi, Feburary 27, 2019 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Days before the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to Viet Nam, Vietnamese mangos were officially permitted to enter the U.S. after ten years of waiting. 

The overseas trip is supposed as an opportunity for the two countries to boost trade ties. 

Earlier, both Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh and U.S. Secretary of States Mike Pompeo on February 26 reached a consensus to regard trade and investment as driving forces for the bilateral ties. 

After the recent talks between Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong and U.S. President Donald Trump, they witnessed the signing of tens of billions of USD.

Director General of the Vietnamese Plant Protection Department Hoang Trung reported that Viet Nam officially sent a registration dossier for mango export to the U.S. in 2009. After nearly ten years, Vietnamese mango exporters finally completed procedures for overseas shipment. This would be Viet Nam’s sixth fruits to the U.S. (after dragon fruits, rambutan fruits, longans, litchis, and star apples). 

Generally, in January 2019, Viet Nam earned US$ 5.151 billion of export revenue from shipping goods to the U.S. 

Noticeably, garment and textile was the biggest hard currency earner, touching US$ 1.59 billion, representing a year-on-year surge of 34.1%. Other key exports included footwear with US$ 620 million; furniture with US$ 475 million; telephones with US$ 473 million. 

In the reviewed period, the U.S. accounted for 23.3% of Viet Nam’s export turnover. 

Meanwhile, Viet Nam imported US$ 1.07 billion of goods from the U.S. Viet Nam ran a trade surplus of US$ 4 billion with the U.S., one of its leading trade partners.

Over the last 25 years, after the ties normalization, the two-way trade turnover surged by 120 times from US$ 450 million in 1994 to over US$ 60 billion in 2018. So far, Viet Nam ranked 16th out of the U.S. key trade partners. 

A large number of experts predicted that the bilateral trade ties would experience important changes in 2019 as the U.S. may recognize Viet Nam as a market economy after July 1, 2019. 

Hence, enterprises were suggested to build effective business strategies to deeply explore the market and foster the bilateral ties./.  

By Kim Loan