Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – After 23 years joining the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam’s economy has connected closely with the bloc’seconomy, especially after the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was set up in late2015, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh.
According to the minister, since joining the ASEAN FreeTrade Area (AFTA) in 1996, the total trade value between Vietnam and ASEAN hasincreased about 7.7 times, from 5.91 billion USD in 1996 to 45.23 billion USDin November 2017. The country’s export value to ASEAN rose by 12.4 times, from1.6 billion USD in 1996 to 19.9 billion USD.
As of early July2018, the total trade value had reached 28.1 billion USD, including 12.2billion USD in export value and 15.9 billion USD in import value.
Notably, by the end of this year, Vietnam will remove taxfor 98 percent of tariff lines with ASEAN countries under the ASEAN Trade inGoods Agreement (ATIGA), he added.
Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Import-Export Departmentunder the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that entering the ASEAN market,many Vietnamese products have had positive changes and become more competitive.
The birth of the AEC marked a new integration step of ASEANeconomies with a goal of building a competitive, dynamic and innovative ASEAN.
However, many Vietnamese enterprises remain vague about theAEC, and find it difficult to address technical barriers to protect domesticproduction and consumers.
ASEAN countries’ products are now available in theVietnamese market, which is a challenge for domestic businesses with lowcompetitiveness.
Therefore, it is important for domestic enterprises tounderstand both opportunities and challenges brought by the AEC, Hai stressed.-VNA
VNA
