US pork industry improves access to Vietnam market

Vietnam has acceeded to US proposals to reduce import duties on certain items, including pork. Photo: Unsplash

The information was revealed during the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Vietnam last week. Accordingly, US farmers and pork producers will have greater access to the Vietnamese market as a result of Vietnam's positive consideration of the US' proposal to eliminate or reduce Most Favoured Nation (MFN) import duties on corn, wheat, and pork products. These tariff cuts allow US farmers to provide Vietnam with quality and competitively-priced products while helping to reduce the US trade deficit with Vietnam.

One of the key trade initiatives of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has been to improve market access to Vietnam. For more than two years, the organisation has been aggressively pushing on the matter, leading to 70 members of Congress sending a letter to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai encouraging her to press Vietnam to reduce duties on US pork, as reported by Thepigsite.com.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Vietnam has one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies, as well as a fast-growing middle class that has more than doubled in size since 2014. Vietnamese consumers continue to view US food and agricultural products as safe and high quality. The slow recovery from the previous African swine fever outbreak continues to affect the agricultural sector, flattening demand for animal feed while stimulating additional demand for pork and poultry imports.

Vietnam is currently the US' seventh largest agricultural export market, totalling $3.3 billion in 2020. The largest export growth from the US to Vietnam in 2020 was in soybeans and wheat, up $158 million and $64 million, respectively. Exports of distillers’ grains, tree nuts, and dairy products also increased by $28 million, $18 million, and $15 million, respectively.