Import and export of goods are still favorable and are expected to reach record numbers this year, but there are also many barriers to import and export.

What are the disadvantages of import and export?

The latest preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs show that the total import-export turnover in the first period of August 2024 (August 1-15) reached 32.93 billion USD, down 11.4% (equivalent to a decrease of 4.24 billion USD) compared to the results in the second half of July 2024.

The results achieved in the first half of August brought the total import-export turnover of the whole country up to August 15, 2024 to 473.33 billion USD, up 16.9%, equivalent to an increase of 68.58 billion USD compared to the same period in 2023.

Import-export is showing many positive signs, but is also facing many difficulties. According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy Research on Industry and Trade, Vietnam's import-export activities are also facing many difficulties. In particular, the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas military conflicts directly affect global trade flows, creating the risk of disruption of the world's key transport routes. This not only affects the consumer market but also creates additional logistics costs for Vietnamese export enterprises.

In addition, the fact that the US has not recognized Vietnam as a market economy causes enterprises exporting goods to this country to continue to be discriminated against in anti-dumping and subsidy investigations. This causes the actual production costs of Vietnamese enterprises to not be used to calculate the dumping margin but must use the "replacement value" of a third country. This is one of the biggest difficulties for export enterprises.

Not to mention, the US continues to impose anti-dumping taxes, the EC and Taiwan (China) consider anti-dumping investigations on some groups of Vietnamese goods, which are also disadvantages for exporting goods to these markets. This makes businesses and relevant agencies not only have to prepare documents for the investigation, prove the legality of goods but also directly affect the scale and export output of businesses.

In addition, quality standards or requirements on the origin of goods of import markets are increasingly high; The negative impacts of epidemics, trade conflicts, and geopolitical conflicts have caused protectionism to return when economies tend to protect domestic production, leading to the risk of Vietnam's export goods facing more and more trade lawsuits; The challenge remains as sustainable development, carbon emission reduction and environmental protection are inevitable trends in most of Vietnam's key export markets.

Solving the challenge

Speaking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, economic expert Nguyen Minh Phong said that recently, one of the activities that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has strongly implemented is early warning of trade defense. In the context of the current difficulties in exporting goods, the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to continue to direct Vietnamese Trade Offices abroad to closely follow market information and continue to do a good job of early warning businesses against trade defense barriers.

"In the context of goods exports benefiting from FTAs ​​as they are now, the trend of markets erecting trade barriers for Vietnamese goods will continue to be an inevitable trend" - economic expert Nguyen Minh Phong pointed out.

In particular, the system of FTAs ​​with more than 60 markets is still expanding opportunities for domestic industries and businesses to boost exports and take advantage of tariff incentives in the coming time. However, niche markets and small potential markets in large markets are also “land” that cannot be ignored when this region has not yet erected trade barriers for Vietnamese goods.

Accordingly, it is possible to export to China, but it is necessary to focus more on localities. European and American countries need to direct the market to states - local and regional levels of the country... Therefore, it is necessary to link localities, departments, and businesses together as well as horizontal and vertical linkages.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien - Director of the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center pointed out: "In the export orientation of the agricultural sector in the coming time, we will focus on promoting trade deep into the localities of your country to expand the market for Vietnamese goods."

At the same time, agricultural export enterprises still need to focus on deep processing. Vietnamese industrial processing and manufacturing enterprises must participate in the supply chain of FDI manufacturers - mainly multinational corporations that are contributing about 85% of the value of goods export turnover. This is a mandatory solution for sustainable export of goods.

According to: Lan Phuong - Cong Thuong Newspaper