South Korea takes over China in Vietnam trade deficit ranking

The trade deficit with South Korea hit a record in 2018

On April 10, the Ministry of Industry and Trade held a ceremony to release Vietnam Export and Import Report 2018. The event took place in the central city Danang with the participation of more than 100 delegates representing ministries, agencies, and import-export enterprises from across the country.

This is annual publication is issued by the ministry (MoIT) to provide ministries, branches, localities, as well as corporate and individual readers with an overall picture of the country’s import and export situation during the year.

At the announcement ceremony, Tran Thanh Hai, deputy director of the Import and Export Department under the MoIT, gave an overview of the publication’s findings.

Accordingly, during the whole year of 2018, Vietnam's total export and import value reached $480.17 billion. In particular, export turnover reached $243.48 billion, an increase of 13.2 per cent compared to 2017.

The structure of exports continued to improve positively with less raw products and more processed products and industrial products exported.

The scale of exports also expanded across most categories. Twenty-nine export items registered export turnover surpassing $1 billion (of which eight items had export value surpassing $5 billion and five items surpassing $10 billion).

Hai informed that unlike the previous years, 2018 was also the first year that South Korea replaced China to become the country with which Vietnam incurred the largest trade deficit.

This came on the back of Samsung’s new production facilities coming into operation, triggering the need to import huge volumes of production components.

Phan Duc Bach, deputy director of the Vietnam Central Committee for Propaganda and Education’s Danang Office, said that the Vietnam Export and Import Report 2018 provides accurate, systemic, and transparent information for readers about the basic issues of Vietnam’s import and export scene in the past year, such as export and import of goods; export and import market; import and export policies and mechanisms; information about signed trade agreements; or issues that import-export businesses need to pay attention to.

The report also reflects on achievements and shortfalls, as well as the challenges and new steps in import and export activities in 2018.

Nguyen Tien Quang, director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Danang Branch, said: “At the VCCI, we regularly use the Vietnam Export and Import Reports to present facts to businesses and associations and international businesses and we received positive assessments. VCCI also uses the information in the reports to make recommendations and provide information for businesses.”