Trade deficit is more than US$ 6.5 billion from ASEAN

	4 key markets account for $US 216 billion of Vietnam’s turnover
	Imports increased over US$ 9 billion, trade deficit with China sharply decreased
	Trade deficit continued to fall to more than $ 700 million.

Automobile is one of the items that have increased imports from ASEAN in 2017. Photo: T. Binh.

Preliminary statistics of the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that the total value of goods between Vietnam and ASEAN in 2017 reached US$ 49.53 billion, an increase of 19.6% over the previous year 2016 and accounted for 11, 7% of total import-export turnover of Vietnam.

In particular, the total export turnover reached US$ 21.51 billion, an increase of 23.9% (equal to US$ 4.15 billion) compared to 2016 and accounted for 10.1% of total export turnover of the country.

The groups of goods which increased Vietnam's exports sharply was phones and accessories with an increase of US$ 948 million; iron and steel with an increase of US$ 722 million; computers and electronic components with an increase of US$ 488 million; crude oil with an increase of US$ 378 million; textiles and garments with an increase of US$ 181 million.

Notably, despite the rapid increase in export turnover, Vietnam's trade deficit with its ASEAN partners was quite large, reaching more than US$ 6.5 billion.

Specifically, in 2017, the total import value of Vietnam for goods originating from ASEAN reached US$ 28.02 billion, an increase of 16.4% and accounted for 13.3% of total import turnover of Vietnam.

Imports of Vietnam increased sharply in some commodities as follows: gasoline of all kinds increased by US$ 873 million; vegetables and fruits increased by US$ 464 million; machinery, equipment and spare parts increased by US$ 313 million; automobiles of all types increased by US$ 307 million, metal increased by US$ 269 million; and coal increased by US$ 258 million.

In particular, in trade relations with major economies in the region, Vietnam suffered a large trade deficit. For example, Vietnam's trade deficit with Thailand was $US 5.88 billion; with Singapore was US$ 2.34 billion and with Malaysia was US$ 1.65 billion.

Within ASEAN, Vietnam had a large surplus with Cambodia and the Philippines with export surplus of US$ 1.76 billion and nearly US$ 1.68 billion, respectively.

In 2017, Thailand continued to be Vietnam's largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching US$ 15.11 billion, accounting for 30.5% of total exports and imports of Vietnam with ASEAN.

The following partners were Malaysia with US$ 10.07 billion (20.3%), Singapore with US$ 8.26 billion (16.7%), Indonesia with US$ 6.5 billion (13.1%), Cambodia with US$ 3.8 billion (7.7%), Philippines with nearly US$ 4 billion (8.1%), Laos with US$ 892 million (1.8%), Myanmar with US$ 828 million (1.7%), and Brunei with 73% (0.1%).

Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first half of January, 2018 The Vietnam Customs Statistics announced that in the first half (01-15/01/2018) of January-2018, Vietnam’s total exports of US dollars ...

Thus, in the ASEAN market, we have 6 "US$ billion" markets including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines.