2019 sees brisk Vietnam-US trade

Minister counsellor Bui Huy Son, head of the Vietnam Trade Office in the US responds to an interview given by a Washington-based VOV corespondent.

Statistics released by the General Department of Vietnam Customs show the total trade turnover between the Southeast Asian country and the US had reached US$ 68.6 billion by late November 2019, a year on year hike of 24.5 percent.

Minister counsellor Bui Huy Son, head of the Vietnam Trade Office in the US, said that the year 2019 has seen great improvements in Vietnam- US trade ties. These include comprehensive policy exchanges and dialogue channels at various levels ranging from businesses, localities to the governments. These activities have brought about considerable results in both policies and trading transactions.

However, Vietnam-US trade relations have still posed some concerned issues in relation to the current policies and barriers which both sides need to join hands in the settlement of pending questions.

There are some highlights of Vietnam - US trade relations throughout 2019. Firstly, the channels for policy exchanges and dialogues between government agencies have been developed comprehensively during the year. Especially, the two sides reaped very positive results from the first session of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) held successfully in early October.

Vietnam has come up with a comprehensive action plan for the first time aimed to bolster Vietnam-US trade relations in a balanced and sustainable manner and open up opportunities to build up the healthy and sustainable trade relations between the two sides.

Secondly, the US side has officially recognized Vietnam’s food safety control system on catfish as equivalent to American regulations after many years of review.

This confirms the true capacity of the domestic catfish quality control system in meeting high requirements set by US regulators. It also presents a good opportunity for Vietnamese exporters to boost their shipment of catfish products to the highly lucrative market.

It is worthy of note is that trading activities between the both sides enjoyed upswing during 2019, with the total bilateral trade turnover of US$ 68.8 billion, surging by over 24 percent on year.

This is a remarkable achievement in bilateral trade between the two countries and their macroeconomic performance, Son noted.

The official voiced his belief that the impressive results seen in 2019 would lay a firm foundation for bright prospects for Vietnam-US trade ties in 2020. Both sides are sparing no effort to intensify policy exchange mechanisms and remove trade barriers while accelerating the implementation of the action plans to foster the sustainable and balanced trade relations.

“We have felt the growing interest of both sides’ enterprises in business and investment opportunities while stakeholders are scheduled to organise a number of trade promotion activities and networking meetings to enhance linkages among these firms,” the official said.

These positive results from economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and the US during would act as a catalyst to strengthen their current comprehensive partnership in the build-up to the 25th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties in 2020, he added.