EU’s border closure yet to affect goods circulation: official
The European Union (EU)’s border closure to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has not yet had a significant impact on goods circulation, said an official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
People in Rome, Italy, wear face masks to prevent infection of SARS-CoV-2 (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - TheEuropean Union (EU)’s border closure to prevent the spread of the novelcoronavirus disease (COVID-19) has not yet had a significant impact on goodscirculation, said an official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The EU had formally agreed totemporarily close its external borders for 30 days to restrict non-essentialtravel in an effort to slow the spread of the pandemic.
Ta Hoang Linh, Director of the ministry’s European – African Market Department,said that it was too early to say how the EU’s move would affect cross-bordertrade as the European Commission stressed that goods would not be restrictedacross external borders.
The biggest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Linh, is thedeclining demand as Europeans will stay at home and reduce shopping forproducts like footwear, clothes and wooden items which are Vietnam’s majorexports to the bloc.
He stressed that the ministryis keeping a close watch on the development of the EU’s closure of its externalborders and the impacts on cross-border trade to develop detailed scenarios andmeasures to limit the negative impacts on Vietnam’s exports.
He also urged firms toprepare for any possible impacts on their import-export activities.
According to statistics ofthe General Department of Customs, Vietnam’s export revenue to the EU market wasestimated at 5.15 billion USD in the first two months of this year,representing a drop by 4.56 percent over the same period last year. Expertssaid that the decline was, however, just temporary and more time was needed tosee the trend.
Vietnam is having significant opportunities to boost exports into the 18trillion USD market when the EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) isexpected to come into force in July.
Research by the Ministry of Planning and Investment pointed out that the tradedeal will help increase Vietnam’s export revenue to the EU market by 20 percentin 2020 and 42.7 percent in 2025 compared with the scenario of no trade deal.
The EU was a major export market of Vietnam with revenue increasing more than14 times from 2.8 billion USD in 2000 to more than 41.5 billion USD last year./.
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People in Rome, Italy, wear face masks to prevent infection of SARS-CoV-2 (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) 
