According to the Vietnamese Trade Office in the US, many US importers are seeking new markets, including Vietnam, to reduce imports from key markets, especially from China. Even though China became the US’s third biggest goods exporter in 2007, trade disputes between the two powers, including dumping lawsuits and violations of food hygiene and safety regulations, caused difficulties for US importers. In addition, US importers took risks from the depreciation of the US dollar against the Chinese Yuan and the high trade deficit between the two countries.

The Trade Office forecasts that Vietnam’s exports to the US this year are likely to increase by 23-25 percent compared to 2007, despite unstable signs in the world’s biggest economy. Major export staples are garments, woodwork, footwear, seafood and electrical equipment.

Trade Counsellor to the US Ngo Van Thoan says, “There is no doubt that US importers have shifted to importing commodities from other markets rather than China, and domestic businesses should know and make full use of this chance. Besides establishing contact, domestic businesses should raise their production capacity to meet the importers’ requirements in terms of both quantity and quality. As a result, trade promotion activities should be carried out more frequently and in a professional manner.”

Due to its high domestic production costs and labour shortages, Japan, which is the world’s second biggest economy and Vietnam’s big trade partner, has increased investment overseas to re-import commodities. 

Japan is a huge market for software products, ranking second after the US, but faces a serious shortage of information technology (IT) engineers. Every year, the number of IT engineers falls by 3-4 percent due to the aging population. Meanwhile, other sectors such as agro-forestry, mechanics and light industries face serious labour shortages.

This year, the Vietnamese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoIT) has set a target of increasing its exports to Japan by 17 percent. Trade Counsellor Vu Van Trung to Japan says, “Domestic businesses should view Japan as a potential and strategic market. To sharpen their competitiveness, they should pay more attention to improving product quality, particularly agro-forestry and fisheries products. Alongside trade promotion activities, it is imperative to establish a stable and long-term sales network to boost exports.”

According to the MoIT, the European Union has a great demand for importing agro-forestry and fisheries products, garments, footwear, bikes and bike spare parts and plastic products, and Vietnam is one of the destinations for EU importers. To explain this trend, MoIT experts says that Vietnamese product quality has improved while many of its trademarks have been established. In addition, the Vietnam-EU relations have been developing strongly. Currently Vietnam is the coordinator of negotiations on the free trade area agreement between the EU and ASEAN and on a Vietnam-EU partnership agreement. The Government has worked out a plan of action to implement the 2006-2015 master plan on Vietnam-EU relations, with a focus on developing economics, trade and industries.

To grasp this chance, MoIT Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien says that trade counselors should propose and renew trade promotion programmes overseas.

“We also encourage trade counselors to invite foreign businesses, especially those involved in import-export, distribution, wholesale and retail activities, to Vietnam to explore and sign contracts with Vietnamese counterparts,” says Mr Bien.