Forty percent of Vietnamese enterprises exporting to the EVFTA market benefit from tariff preferences for import and export goods, thereby increasing orders, revenue, and profits.
At the Conference on Market Information and Connection with the European Distribution System (EU) held on August 11, Ms. Nguyen Thao Hien, Deputy Director of the European-American Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that in the first month of 2022, Vietnam's export turnover to the EU market increased drastically, estimated at US$27.9 billion, up 22 percent over the same period last year.
Vietnam is gaining a stronger foothold in the EU market, though the Covid-19 wreaked havocs on both sides, after the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) took effect in August 2020.
People refer to the European Union (EU) export market as one market that maintains the highest and most difficult quality standards in the world when dealing with imported goods from other countries.
The Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, on the evening of June 13, informed that Vietnamese products sold in Europe, such as vermicelli, glass noodles, rice paper, and pho noodles, have been excluded by the EU from the list of agricultural products and food that needs to be strictly inspected when exporting to this market.
Oxfam and the Vietnam Chamber of Trade and Industry (VCCI), on the morning of May 6 in Hanoi, jointly organized a seminar to kick off the project of strengthening export capacity for small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector of Vietnamese spices and vegetables.
The Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Trade Promotion Agency, on the afternoon of April 22, informed the press that the EU market needed to import a large volume of seafood after the pandemic, opening up opportunities for Vietnamese seafood enterprises.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade, on October 27, coordinated with the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) to organize the Vietnam-EU Trade Forum in 2021 titled "EVFTA – Leverage for Trade and Investment Cooperation in the New Normal’. The meeting attracted more than 300 delegates from many provinces, cities, commercial counselors, domestic and European enterprises.
After nearly four years of struggling to remove the yellow card issued by the European Council (EC), many remain worried that the red card may soon be issued, and access to the lucrative European Union (EU) markets denied altogether.
On the morning of April 19, the office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, informed the press that from April 21, Vietnam's products exported to the EU, such as poultry eggs, milk, meat, and seafood, will be checked more strictly, due to new regulations of the importing market.
Entering April, farmers in Mekong Delta provinces are harvesting the last winter-spring rice fields of the total area of 1.5 million hectares, with an output of about 10.7 million tons. The prices of rice have declined in the past few days but remained at high levels as farmers focused on producing rice varieties to supply the high-end segment. This is considered an important change for Mekong Delta rice farmers.
The General Statistics Office of Vietnam on February 28 informed that in the first two months of this year, the total import and export turnover was estimated at US$95.81 billion, up 24.5 percent year-on-year. Of which, exports hit $48.55 billion, up 23 percent, and imports reached $47.26 billion, up nearly 26 percent. The trade surplus in the first two months was estimated at $1.29 billion.
The Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) on January 28 held a seminar on the prospects of exporting goods to the European Union through the gateway of Poland to assist enterprises to have more information and experience to increase exports to this market.
Five months after the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) took effect, many agricultural export products increased in both volume and value. However, some key export products of Vietnam have not taken advantage of the EVFTA yet, such as cashew, honey, and sugarcane industries.
According to Vietnamese trade counselors, in 2021, Vietnamese goods, in general, have a great opportunity to export to Europe, Northern Europe, the US, the Eurasian Economic Union, Japan, South Korea, and China.
At the end of the year, the weather in the South has started getting cold. This is also the time when the water in the fields downstream began to recede. Many farmers along the National Highway 61C, which connects Hau Giang and Can Tho provinces, are rushing to plow the soil to sow the winter-spring rice crop.
According to the Vietnam Directorate of Fisheries, with 82 percent of fishing vessels equipped with vessel monitoring systems, traceability and the application of culturing area codes have significantly improved. However, if there is still one fishing vessel that has not registered or illegally exploits, the European Commission (EC) will continue to keep a yellow card or even give a red card to Vietnam.
Despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, enterprises in the Mekong Delta recently have promoted the processing of high-value seafood products to increase their exports to many markets around the world. Seafood exports are showing signs of recovery and opportunities for enterprises to accelerate to finish their plans in the last months of the year.
According to the Department of Crop Production, the EU's total demand for imported rice is 2.3 million tons per year, with a value of 1.4 billion euros in 2019. In comparison with other countries in the ASEAN, Vietnam's rice exports to the EU are only one-sixth of Thailand’s, one-tenth of Myanmar’s, and a quarter of Cambodia’s.