Sharing the same global difficulties, Vietnam’s export industry is facing many new pressures, requiring absolute compliance with the “rules of the game”.
Good growth but many risks await
In March, our country witnessed a strong breakthrough in import-export activities when the total turnover reached 75.39 billion USD, up 18.22% compared to the previous month and up 16.6% compared to the same period last year. Of which, exports grew impressively by 23.79%. Accordingly, at the end of the first quarter, the total import-export turnover reached 202.5 billion USD, up 13.7% compared to the same period last year. The trade balance continued to have a surplus of over 3 billion USD, contributing significantly to the stability of the economy.Vietnam has become a major trading partner of the United States and an important link in the supply chain of many types of goods for the US market.
The good news is that in the first quarter, most of our country’s key export markets grew positively. Especially the US – currently leading Vietnam’s export markets with a ratio of more than 30% of export turnover. Currently, more than half of our country’s export value to the US is high-tech products (consumer electronics, smartphones), garments and footwear, the rest are other products such as furniture and agricultural products.
In addition, the assessment of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) shows that the strong increase of the domestic economic sector with export turnover reaching 29 billion USD, up 15%, higher than the 9% increase of the FDI enterprise sector (reaching 73.8 billion USD) – is also a noteworthy bright spot. This shows that the internal strength of domestic enterprises is gradually being improved, creating a solid foundation for export growth in the future.
However, according to the leader of the Import-Export Department, the road ahead contains many difficulties and uncertainties for export activities that we cannot be subjective about. Many major difficulties still exist even when the US announced a delay in imposing tariffs on goods from many countries, including Vietnamese goods.
Furthermore, global trade tensions will push countries to build barriers to protect domestic production. Many Vietnamese products have been and are being subject to trade defense measures by many countries, including the US.
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According to Ms. Truong Thuy Linh, Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade), in the US market, although the import tax is low, it is the country with the most trade defense investigations in the world. Currently, Vietnamese goods are involved in 71 cases, accounting for more than 1/4 of the cases investigated by foreign countries on Vietnamese goods. Of these, there are 32 anti-dumping cases, 14 anti-subsidy cases, 3 self-defense cases and 22 cases of anti-evasion of trade defense measures.
Recently, speaking to the press, Mr. Ta Hoang Linh – Director of the Department of Foreign Market Development (Ministry of Industry and Trade) also worried that Vietnam’s export target of 12% increase in 2025, equivalent to 450 billion USD, could be negatively affected by the global trade context.
Absolutely obey the “rules of the game” and be fair
In recent times, the Government has made efforts to accompany the business community to remove barriers in export activities, especially in trade defense. Ministries, localities and businesses have been proactive in handling and responding to foreign investigations.
“However, trade disputes are a never-ending story and it is predicted that the defense trend will increase sharply over time. In the US, the number of cases is increasing rapidly and regulations related to trade defense investigations are also frequently amended and shortened, making updating and compliance increasingly difficult,” Ms. Linh analyzed.
Therefore, according to Ms. Linh, the first thing in the current context is that businesses must absolutely comply with the “rules of the game” of exporting, strictly comply with the regulations and criteria of the export market. Only then can Vietnamese goods avoid risks when entering the import market.
In particular, businesses need to avoid linking their supply chains to sources that are at risk of being subject to US trade defense measures. To do so, in the long term, businesses must consider increasing the use of domestically produced materials or materials from sources that are not subject to US trade defense measures so that if they are subject to tariffs, they will be at a lower level.
In addition, businesses need to pay special attention to playing fair, not abetting acts of evading trade defense measures, or committing origin fraud to avoid having to face tax evasion investigations and anti-evasion trade defense measures. Finally, experts say that instead of relying on others and lacking initiative, Vietnamese businesses should be proactive and active when participating in international litigation.
In the long term, the leader of the Foreign Market Development Department said that businesses need to actively expand their markets, taking advantage of free trade agreements (FTAs) with more than 60 countries to diversify their export markets. Currently, Vietnam still has a lot of room to exploit the remaining 87% of the world market, especially targeting new markets such as the Middle East, Africa, Northeast Asia, etc. With support from the Government, relevant ministries and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, businesses will have many opportunities to expand exports to new markets, limit risks from trade protection policies, overcome challenges to continue to maintain strong growth momentum in the coming time.