HCM City (VNA) – There remains muchpotential for comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and the US, and bothare working hard to promote balanced bilateral trade, heard a forum held in HoChi Minh City on September 6.

At the function, Deputy Minister of Industry andTrade Do Thang Hai said bilateral trade has grown strongly for many years andcontinually set new records. 

It was recorded at only 220 million USD in 1994when the US officially lifted economic sanctions on Vietnam, and reached 1.4billion USD in 2001 – the year before the bilateral trade agreement tookeffect. The figure hit 58.8 billion USD in 2018 and 35.4 billion USD in thefirst half of 2019.

The recent strong shift of global supply chainsto Vietnam has helped it jump from the 12th place to the 9th position among thetop exporters to the US. It has also become the 27th biggest importer and the16 largest trade partner of the US, he noted.

Complementarity is an important character in thetwo countries’ economic and trade ties, Hai said, elaborating that the US hasbig demand for typical agricultural products and strong commodities of Vietnamlike apparel, footwear and electronic devices. In return, Vietnam has demandfor hi-tech devices, aviation equipment, telecom products and raw farm producewhich the US boasts abundant supplies.

Additionally, as the Southeast Asian nationposts an average GDP growth rate of nearly 7 percent each year, a population ofalmost 100 million and rising per capita income, it is forecast to be apotential market for US firms in numerous fields such as health care,education, telecom, retail, finance-banking and energy.

These are favourable conditions for the twobusiness circles to continue bolstering trade, the deputy minister said.

However, the growth of Vietnamese exports to theUS has also posed many Vietnamese goods to risks of being put under strictercontrol by the North American nation, according to Director of the ministry’sTrade Remedies Authority Le Trieu Dung.

In the first eight months of 2019, there wereseven trade investigations relating to the origin of Vietnamese goods,including aluminum, steel, household appliances, electronic products, aquaticproducts, which were charged with being made from materials hailed from thecountries the US is taking trade remedies against like China, the Republic ofKorea and India.

This has negatively affected Vietnam’s economicintegration efforts, export activities, as well as the prestige of Vietnamesegoods, Dung said.

At the forum, Executive Director of the AmericanChamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam) in HCM City Mary Tarnowka saidher country’s policy is to diversify supply sources for its market and improvemarket access conditions for American goods in a way that is to avoid too bigtrade deficit with some economies. Therefore, there remains much room forVietnamese businesses to expand their market.

However, to sustainably consolidate bilateraltrade links, Vietnamese firms should improve their supply, manufacturing andprocessing capacity. The Vietnamese Government also needs to create conditionsfor US companies to boost export, investment and business activities in thecountry so as to ensure trade balance, she said.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industryand Trade, using technology and materials from the US to manufacture productsand then exporting them to this country is a swift, firm and effective move inbuilding closed-loop supply chains and generating revenue for botheconomies.-VNA