Vietnam-US trade: From 450 million to over 60 billion USD

	Vietnam-US trade: From 450 million to over 60 billion USD
	Vietnam-US ties see remarkable progress in all fields: Ambassador
	Vietnam desires to promote comprehensive partnership with US

2-digit high growth

In 1995 (the year when Vietnam-US normalized relations), the import-export turnover between the two countries stopped at 450 million USD, then by 2018, the US-Vietnam trade rose to over 60 billion USD, 133 times more compared to 23 years ago.

Especially, since Vietnam became a member of WTO (in 2007), bilateral trade between Vietnam and other countries in the world has been developing strongly, especially with the United States.

Progress of the value and speed of increase / decrease of export and import between Vietnam and the United States in the 2007-2018 period

Customs statistics show that the growth of import and export turnover between Vietnam and the United States in the past 12 years (2007-2018) reached an average of 17.4% per year. In particular, the average export of the whole period increased by 16.2% / year and imports increased by 23.8% / year.

During the 2007-2018 periods, there were 11 years achieving positive growth, except for 2009 due to the global economic crisis, the bilateral trade between Vietnam America decreased slightly by 1%.

When Vietnam joined the WTO, the value of bilateral import and export between Vietnam and the United States reached nearly 11.8 billion USD, but by 2018 this figure had reached over 60 billion USD, 5 times higher than in 2007.

In particular, exports to the US reached 47.52 billion USD, up by 5 times, while imports of goods from the US market reached 12.75 billion USD, up to 8 times.

Thus, it is clear that many US businesses have also taken advantage of the benefits of good bilateral relations between the two countries to enhance the export of goods into the Vietnamese market.

With a high growth rate, currently, the US still maintains its position as Vietnam's largest export partner, accounting for 20% of the total export value for our country.

At the same time, the world's largest economy is the 5th largest market for supplying goods to Vietnam, accounting for 5% of the total value of imported goods to our country.

In general, in terms of import and export turnover, the United States ranks 3rd out of more than 200 countries and territories with foreign trade relations with Vietnam (after China and South Korea).

Trade surplus between Vietnam and the United States in the period of 2007-2018

Notably, in the three largest trading partners, the United States is the only member to achieve a trade surplus, with a trade surplus of nearly US $ 35 billion in 2018, while our country has a big trade deficit from China, Korea and Korea.

Not only in 2018, but for many years, Vietnam has continuously maintained a trade surplus with the United States.

For example, in 2007, Vietnam saw an export surplus of 8.39 billion USD; in 2008 this figure was 9.23 billion USD; in 2009, under the influence of the economic crisis in the United States and on a global scale, Vietnam's trade surplus decreased slightly from the previous year to only 8.35 billion USD, but by 2010, surplus rebounded to 10.47 billion USD ... and continued to rise year by year and reached a large surplus last year as mentioned above.

Along with the increase in turnover, the structure of export and import groups between the two countries also has certain changes.

Specifically, in the past, large groups of imports from the United States were machinery and equipment and spare parts; complete cars of all kinds and all kinds of cotton.

But from 2010 up to now, all-car models have given way to the group of computers with electronic products and components to enter the Top 3 commodity groups with the turnover of billions of USD / group / year.

Regarding Vietnam's exports, the key commodity groups are textiles and garments; footwear; wood and wood products; machinery and equipment and spare parts; seafood products ... Since 2011, phones and accessories of all kinds; computers, electronic products and components have contributed to Vietnam's key export products to the United States.

Export value of 10 key commodity groups of Vietnam to the United States in 2018

Next growth momentum

Continuing to maintain the growth for many years, the updated statistics in January 2019 of the General Department of Customs showed that Vietnam-US trade relations continued to prosper.

In January only, the export turnover to the US market reached more than 5 billion USD, this result increased sharply by 42.1%, equivalent to an absolute figure of 1.527 billion USD compared to the same period in 2018. With the stated value above, in January 2019, the United States accounted for 23.3% of the country's total export turnover.

Notably, the growth rate of exports to the United States was up by 4.7 times the average rate of the whole country. This is a low occurrence point in recent years, and even with a few periods of export growth to the US being lower than the national average.

Import values of Vietnam's key commodity groups from the United States in 2018

In the first month of the year, Vietnam had the first group of billion-dollar exports to the United States. It is the textiles and garments group, this export number and group of goods changed compared to the same period in 2018, in terms of added value of textiles and many key commodity groups in Vietnam's largest export market...

Specifically, textile and garment export turnover reached US $ 1,591 billion, up 34.1%.

In addition to textiles, only in January, there were 8 groups of products exported to the US market with a turnover of 100 million USD or more.

Other key product groups include the 620 million USD of footwear, an increase of over 100 million USD; wood and products nearly 475 million USD, an increase of 156 million USD...

In particular, in the first month of the year, the export turnover of phones to the United States reached nearly 473 million USD, up by 121%, equivalent to an increase of 259 million USD. The surge in turnover in the US market is in stark contrast to the decrease in the overall turnover of the mobile phone group in January (January export turnover of phones decreased by 16.3%).

Also in January, the country spent 1.076 billion USD to import goods from the US market. Thus, in January our country achieved a trade surplus of over US $ 4 billion from this important partner.