Vietnam's 2 hundred billion dollar trading partners

Sketched by T.Bình

In recent years, the two largest economies in the world have always maintained bilateral turnover with Vietnam of over 100 billion USD/year. In the new statistics published by the General Department of Customs on import and export results in 2023, the turnover scale of hundreds of billions dollars continues to be maintained.

In trade relations with the two partners mentioned above, Vietnam has a trade deficit with China and a trade surplus with the United States.

Export to China flourishes

In 2023, the General Department of Customs records that export turnover to the Chinese market reached 60.7 billion USD, an increase of 5.3% compared to 2022 and accounting for 17.1% of the country's export turnover.

In the context of global and domestic trade facing many difficulties last year, export growth in the Chinese market was a bright spot.

In 2023, 12 groups of our country's exports to this neighboring market will be recorded with a turnover of 1 billion USD or more. Of these, the two largest product groups with a turnover of 10 billion USD or more include: Phones and components reaching 16.87 billion USD; computers, electronic products and components reached 13 billion USD.

Other billion-dollar groups such as Cameras, camcorders and components; vegetables; machinery, equipment, tools, spare parts, etc.

Notably, 2023 recorded a jump in fruit and vegetable export turnover to this neighboring country.

In 2023, our country's fruit and vegetable exports to China reached nearly 3.64 billion USD, an increase of nearly 140% compared to 2022 (equivalent to an increase in turnover of more than 2.1 billion USD) and accounting for 65% of vegetables and fruits export turnover of the whole country. An important contribution to this result comes from durian products.

In 2023, durian exports nationwide reached 2.1 billion USD, up to 1.82 billion USD compared to the previous year. Of which, durian exports to China alone reached 2.03 billion USD, accounting for 99.4% of the country's total export turnover of this product group.

On the contrary, imports of goods from China in 2023 reached 110.63 billion USD, accounting for 33.9% of the country's import turnover but down 6.1% compared to 2022.

Last year, there were 17 groups of imported goods from China with a turnover of 1 billion USD or more. Similar to exports and imports, there are also two product groups with a turnover of tens of billions of dollars: computers, electronic products and components reached 23.4 billion USD; machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts reached 22.5 billion USD.

With a total turnover of more than 171 billion USD achieved last year, China continues to be Vietnam's largest trading partner, accounting for 25.16% of the country's turnover. However, our country's trade deficit with China is still large when last year's trade deficit was nearly 50 billion USD.

United States - the largest export market

In terms of total trade turnover, the United States ranks second after China, but in terms of exports alone, the world's largest economy has for many years been Vietnam's largest export market.

In 2023, Vietnam's exports to the United States reached nearly 97 billion USD, although down 11.4% compared to the previous year, it still accounts for 27.3% of the country's export turnover. There are 12 groups of our country's exports to the United States with a turnover of 1 billion USD or more, including 3 groups worth tens of billions of dollars.

Leading the way is machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts reaching 18.2 billion USD; followed by computers, electronic products and components reaching 17 billion USD; Textile and garment ranked third with 14.47 billion USD.

Other notable export product groups include phones of all types and components; wood and wood products; footwear, etc.

On the contrary, imports of goods from the United States reached 13.82 billion USD in 2023, down 4.5% compared to the previous year and accounting for 4.2% of Vietnam's import turnover.

The largest and only group of imported goods with a turnover of billions of dollars from the US market is computers, electronic products and components with 3.82 billion USD.

In addition, many imported commodity groups have a turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars such as Cotton; machinery, equipment, tools, spare parts; fodder and raw materials, etc.

Thus, by 2023, the total import-export turnover between the two countries reached nearly 111 billion USD (accounting for 16.27% of the total import-export turnover of the country) and Vietnam's trade surplus was more than 83 billion USD.

This is the third consecutive year that Vietnam - US trade has reached a turnover of 100 billion USD or more. The United States is Vietnam's second trade partner to reach 100 billion USD (after China).

According to statistical data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam - US trade reached the 100 billion USD mark for the first time in 2021 (reaching 111.55 billion USD). Of which, Vietnam's exports reached 96.27 billion USD and imports reached 15.28 billion USD. Entering 2022, despite facing many difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Vietnam - US trade still had remarkable growth with a turnover of nearly 124 billion USD.

In 2023, the country's total import-export turnover reached 681.04 billion USD, down 6.9% (equivalent to a decrease of 50.25 billion USD) compared to the previous year. Of which exports reached 354.67 billion USD, down 4.6% (corresponding to a decrease of 17.05 billion USD) and imports reached 326.37 billion USD, down 9.2% (corresponding to a decrease of 33.2 billion USD).