VietNamNet Bridge – One of the most
positive changes in the Vietnam-China trade is the shifting from cross-border
trade to the trade through official channel, according to Dao Ngoc Chuong,
Deputy Director of the Asia-Pacific Department of the Ministry of Industry and
Trade.

Dao Ngoc Chuong, Deputy Director of the Asia-Pacific Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade

In 2010, Vietnam exported 7.3 billion dollars worth of
products to China,
and imported 20.02 billion dollars worth of products from the country. The
trade with China accounts
for 14.07 percent of Vietnam’s
total foreign trade, while the trade with Vietnam
only accounts for 0.78 percent of China’s total foreign trade.

In 2001, Vietnam’s trade gap with China was 200
million dollars, while the figure jumped to 12.7 billion dollars in 2010.

Boosting exports to China has been
cited as one of the most important solutions to narrow the trade deficit. Can
you see any improvement in this work?

It is clear
that Vietnamese enterprises are trying to exploit the Chinese market. First of
all, Vietnamese enterprises have realized the big potentials of the market.
Secondly, they understand that it would be easier to boost exports to China than to
other markets. Thirdly, the regional integration and the attention of the two
governments have both created favorable conditions for enterprises to increase
exports.

Since 2007,
Vietnam’s growth rate of
exports to China
has always been higher than the growth rates of imports from the country.

In the past, Vietnam exported products to China mostly
across the border, while export products did not have high added values, which
explained the export turnover was modest. Meanwhile, Vietnam
imported high-value products from China. Have there been any changes
in the export structure so far?

One of the
most positive changes in the Vietnam-China trade is the shifting from
cross-border trade to the trade through official channel.

The trade
with China can be divided
into two main phrases: The first one, from 1991 to 1997, where Vietnam traded with China mainly across the border.
However, since 1997, the trade through official channel has become dominated in
the trade relation between the two countries.

In 2010,
the cross border trade brought the turnover of 10 billion dollars, while the
total trade turnover of the two countries was 30 billion dollars.

Besides
this, what I can see clearly is that the way of doing business of Vietnamese
enterprises has changed. Previously, Vietnamese enterprises only aimed small
trade deals and only thought of carrying goods to the border areas to sell to
Chinese merchants. Meanwhile, they now try to process goods to have higher
added values in the products.

Some experts believe that China does not want to encourage trade with Vietnam through
official channels, while it is encouraging cross-border trade. This has caused
difficulties to Vietnamese enterprises which want to penetrate deeply into the
Chinese domestic market. What would you say about that?

I do not
think that it is the Chinese policy to encourage cross-border trade only. As
for China, the imports from Vietnam just
account for 0.78 percent of the country’s total foreign trade.

When the
two countries implement the commitments within the framework of the ASEAN-China
free trade agreement (FTA), the preferences being applied to cross-border trade
must be cut. It is clear that Chinese want to do trade with Vietnamese through
the official channels.

The trade gap with China has been always very high in the last many
years, despite the great efforts by Vietnam to narrow the gap. What are
your comments about this?

I think we
need to analyze the structure of imports and exports to comment on the issue.
Of the 20.03 billion dollars worth of imports from China, luxury consumer goods
accounted for a small proportion. Meanwhile, the main import items were steel,
input materials for the garment industry, pesticide or fertilizer; which are
necessary goods worth about 12 billion dollars.

Pham Huyen