Vietnam Trade Growing

A Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Vietnam was successfully concluded on August 4th which would gradually eliminate nearly all tariffs on goods traded between the European group and Vietnam over the next decade. The agreement is expected to be put into effect by 2017 or 2018. Trade between the EU and Vietnam has tripled over the past decade to USD $31 billion.

Vietnam is also part of the negotiations for the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement with 12 other countries on the Pacific Rim. The USA is Vietnam’s largest export market, notably for footwear and apparel. Trade between the USA and Vietnam has grown from USD $451 million in 2001 to USD $36 billion in 2014, and America is now the seventh-largest foreign investor in Vietnam, behind major Asia investors such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore.

Vietnamese ports handled 9.14 million TEUs in 2014, representing an annual growth rate of 13.8% over 2013. Of these, 6.5 million TEUs were handled by Saigon area facilities, accounting for more than two thirds of the total throughput. Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT), part of the APM Terminals Global Terminal Network, is a deep-water facility located in the Ba Ria?Vung Tau Province, southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, strategically placed and equipped to become a new trade hub for Vietnam, and the region, as Vietnam’s economy and trade presence continue to expand. CMIT began operations in March 2011, and is the only facility in Vietnam to have handled an Ultra-Large Container Ship, with the arrival of the 13,800 TEU capacity CMA CGM Laperouse, the largest vessel ever to call a Vietnamese port, in December 2011.