Vietnam-China trade approaches $200 billion mark

After 11 months, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and China reached 185.4 billion USD, approaching the record of 200 billion USD.

The latest report from the General Statistics Office shows that in the past 11 months, Vietnam’s export turnover to China reached 55.2 billion USD, down 0.9%; imports from this market reached 130.2 billion USD, up 29.7%. China is Vietnam’s largest import market. The trade deficit with China was 75 billion USD, up 67.7%.

Thus, after 11 months, the two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and China reached 185.4 billion USD.

With this figure, over the past 11 months, the average two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and China has reached 16.8 billion USD/month. If this result is maintained, by the end of the year, the two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and China could reach 200 billion USD – a record number ever, equivalent to nearly 1/4 of the total import-export turnover of the whole country. This is considered a positive target, because in the last month of the year, import-export demand often increases to serve goods for the year-end holidays.

Currently, agricultural products are Vietnam’s main export item to the Chinese market. In the first 10 months of 2024, Vietnam’s agricultural export turnover to China reached nearly 10 billion USD, an increase of 11.6% over the same period in 2023. To date, Vietnam has had 14 agricultural products officially exported to the Chinese market, including: durian, bird’s nest, sweet potato, dragon fruit, longan, rambutan, mango, jackfruit, watermelon, banana, black jelly, mangosteen, lychee and passion fruit. In particular, some products such as durian, dragon fruit… from Vietnam are very popular with Chinese consumers, the import volume of these items from Vietnam accounts for about 1/5 of the total agricultural product import volume from ASEAN.

Notably, during the state visit to China by General Secretary and President To Lam in August 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam and the General Administration of Customs of China signed three protocols, officially paving the way for the export of fresh coconuts, frozen durians and crocodiles from Vietnam to the Chinese market. The signing of the Protocols allowing the official export of agricultural products by the two countries has created momentum for many types of Vietnamese agricultural products in the Chinese market.

To promote two-way trade, the Vietnam – China International Trade and Tourism Fair (Lang Son 2024) was recently held, not only as a “bridge” for businesses of the two countries to strengthen cooperation and promote trade, but also contributing to strengthening the friendly cooperative relationship between Lang Son and Guangxi in particular, Vietnam and China in general in the fields of trade, tourism and people-to-people exchange…

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the fair, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said that the fair is an effort to strengthen trade promotion activities, creating opportunities for cooperation, investment and mutual development for Vietnamese and Chinese businesses.

Two-way trade is growing, but currently, Vietnam is importing a lot from China. Talking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper on this issue, Dr. Le Quoc Phuong – former Deputy Director of the Center for Industry and Trade (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that currently, the import turnover from the Chinese market is relatively large, however, the structure of imported goods from this market is mainly raw materials for production and export, so it is not too worrying. Imported goods from China, especially raw materials for production, are of good quality and competitive prices. Two-way transportation is more convenient due to the close geographical location, so Vietnamese enterprises prioritize importing from this market.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s exports to China are mainly agricultural products, the absolute value of which cannot be as high as raw materials for production.

In 2023, the import-export turnover between Vietnam and China reached 171.9 billion USD.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/thuong-mai-viet-nam-trung-quoc-tien-sat-moc-200-ty-usd-363180.html