The Association of Vietnam Timber and Forest Products (VIFOREST) said thatdespite COVID-19, wood exports still surpassed 12 billion USD in 2020, anincrease of more than 15 percent year-on-year. Of the total, more than 7billion USD came from the US.
Julie Hundersmarck from the US Forest Service said that wooden furniturefrom Vietnam is the most popular in the US, mostly sofas, beds, interior décorfor children’s rooms, kitchens, and dining rooms.
Shipments of kitchen cabinets to the US soared to 1 billion USD lastyear from 140 million USD in 2018.
The revenue from interior décor items in the US stood at 115 billion USDand is forecast to increase to 143 billion USD over the next five years.
The Vietnam Trade Office in the US reported that apart from apparel,footwear, and aquatic products, electronics, spare parts, and wooden furniturehave become major foreign currency earners for Vietnam. More than 10 categoriesof Vietnamese goods earned 1 billion USD in exports to the US.
Vietnamese exporters, however, also face risks relating to trade defenceand food safety and quality requirements.
The greatest barrier is regulations on the origin of products, whichfrequently change and require companies to adapt.
VIFOREST Chairman Do Xuan Lap said that rising exports to the US meansthe US Government will raise trade defence measures.
As Canada, Australia, and the US have seen many steel enterprises fromthe Republic of Korea move their mills to Vietnam to avoid taxes, they have decidedto impose anti-dumping tariffs on Vietnamese steel products to over 400percent, meaning that the doors for the Vietnamese steel products to enter thesemarkets are shut down.
Domestic firms also pay less attention to trademark protection.
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), only 1,938 ofnearly 7,000 Vietnamese trademarks have been registered with the USPTO for protection.Of these, only 1,090 are still current./.