Two-way trade between Vietnam and the United Kingdom rose 17% year on year last year to US$6.6 billion, of which Vietnam produced US$4,8 billion in trade surplus.
Packaging dragon fruit for export to the UK.
The impressive growth in bilateral trade was largely attributed to the enforcement of the UK-Vietnam free trade agreement (UKVFTA) in early 2021, experts agreed at a recent workshop reviewing a year of implementing the trade deal.
Luong Hoang Thai, Director of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, noted that the UKVFTA was implemented at a time when both countries were facing numerous difficulties due to the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
But the trade deal has helped elevate bilateral trade relations to new heights, stressed Thai.
According to the official, though many groups of goods exported to the UK did not fully enjoy tax reductions in the first year, major exports such as agricultural products, vegetables, pepper, means of transport and iron & steel products secured relatively high growth.
It’s noteworthy that fruits and vegetables achieved an export growth rate of 67%, said Thai.
The UK is a large lucrative market with an import demand of over US$700 billion of goods per year. However, Vietnamese goods only account for less than 1% of the UK’s total imports.
There is ample room for Vietnamese businesses to exploit the UK market if they change and adapt to modern farming techniques and make good use of opportunities, said Dinh Cao Khue, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association.
It was reported at the workshop that more than 94% of the total of 547 tax lines for fruits and vegetables have enjoyed a tax rate of 0% since the UKVFTA came into force. Many of Vietnam’s tropical fruits such as dragon fruit, litchi, longan, mango, and passion fruit can compete well with similar products imported from South America or countries that do not have an FTA with the UK.
Quality is the No1 requirement if businesses want to ship the products in large quantity to this market, Khue
He suggested that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to invest in improving product quality and at the same time encourage businesses to actively participate in fruit fairs in the UK and Europe to reach customers.
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