Two months after EVFTA takes effect, leather, footwear and seafood exports increase

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The biggest driver for the growth of the footwear industry is the entry into force of the EVFTA. Photo: N. Hue.

Approximately 15,000 sets of C/O model EUR.1

According to the latest information from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, since the effective date of the EVFTA (1 August), the authorized organizations have issued nearly 15,000 Certificate of Origin (C/O) EUR.1 sample with a turnover of nearly US$700millionto 28 EU countries.

The items that have been granted EUR.1 C/O form are mainly footwear, seafood, plastic and plastic products, coffee, textiles, bags, suitcases, vegetables, rattan products, bamboo knitting, electronic goods. Most import markets are countries with EU ports and distribution and transit centers such as Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France and the UK. Many shipments have arrived inthe EU market, cleared and enjoyed preferential treatment.

"This shows that the level of interest of businesses as well as the importance of this market for Vietnam's exports," the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

Regarding specific export results, the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that, in August 2020, Vietnam's export turnover to the EU market has reached US$3.25 billion, up 4.65% compared to July2020 and 4.2% higher than the same period last year.

In September 2020, export turnover to this market continued to maintain a strong momentum, up 14.4% over the same period in 2019.

Many export products of Vietnam have seen positive changes in the EU market after nearly two months since the EVFTA was implemented.

Typically, from the beginning of August up to now, seafood exports have increased by about 10% compared to July 2020. Export turnover to the EU market increased by 1.7% over the same period in 2019. Of which, shrimp exports in August 2020 increased by 15.7% over the same period last year (reaching the highest growth rate since early this year).

Besides seafood, Vietnamese rice exported to Europe also showed positive signs when the export rice price increased from US$80-200/ton depending on the type compared to the time before the EVFTA.

In addition, many other products such as telephones and components, machinery, equipment, spare parts, textiles, footwear, seafood, furniture, coffee are also considered to have great prospects in increasing export turnover to this market.

With leather and footwear, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that from now until the end of the year, the biggest driver for the growth of this industry is the EVFTA.

To take advantage of the opportunity to increase exports, many businesses in the industry have made plans, such as restructuring the apparatus, ready-to-use infrastructure of factories and raw materials to meet the commitments of the agreement and at the same time increasing investment in machinery to improve product quality.

Referring to the EVFTA,PhanThiThanhXuan, General Secretary of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association, said the EU is a traditional market forVietnam's leather and footwear industry, accounting for nearly 30% of export turnover about US$6 billion per year.

"We expect the EVFTA to boost exports to this market to help offset the loss of exports in the first months of the year," Xuan said.

EVFTA has long-term impact

Although the EVFTA has initially had a positive impact on Vietnam's exports to the EU, speaking with reporters from Customs Newspaper, trade expert Pham Tat Thang said that the impact of the EVFTA is the impact in a long time, but immediately in the second half of the year is not much. Because, Vietnam has not been able to catch many enterprises to bring goods to the EU market according to EU standards.

With the EVFTA, Vietnam's biggest hope is to import modern technology from the EU market to improve its export capacity, especially in the region with 100% domestic capital. To do that, there must be a delay, that cannot be shown in the second half of this year.

"I think we do not expect too much on the miraculous change of the EVFTA for exporting goods in the second half of the year, not so fast," said expert Pham Tat Thang.

From now to the end of the year, in order to help businesses make better use of opportunities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade determined that they will continue to urge and synthesize the EVFTA implementation plans of ministries, branches and localities to report to the Prime Minister; coordinate with the Government Office in monitoring and implementing these plans.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also promoted the propaganda and dissemination of commitments in the areas of trade in goods, trade in services, investment, plans to reduce or eliminate import tax commitments on market access of the EVFTA to improve the understanding of citizens and businesses of the agreement's commitments.