Vietnam is the largest cotton importer of Australia. Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Thanks to a number of multilateral free trade agreements, tradebetween Vietnam and Australia has increased in recently, reaching 15.7 billionUSD in 2022, making Australia the seventh trade partner of Vietnam. Of thetotal, Vietnam’s exports hit 5.6 billion USD, up 26.2% year on year.
A report from the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) said that last year, Vietnam shipped 44.5 billion USD worth of garment and textileproducts abroad, a rise of about 11% year on year, becoming the thirdlargest exporter of the product in the world after China and Bangladesh.
Along with garments, the country also exported over 2.5 billionUSD worth of fabric, nearly 5 billion USD worth of yarn, and 1.5 billion USDworth of garment accessories in the year.
In 2022, Vietnam spent 3.3 billion USD on importing 1.7million tonnes of cotton from 11 countries, with Australia standing at thethird position.
According to Austrade, Vietnam’s cotton imports fromAustralia rose from 78 million AUD (50.76 million USD) in 2020 to 1.69 billionAUD in 2022, mostly thanks to competitive prices and geographicaldistance.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that Vietnamand Australia are members of at least three common free trade agreements(FTAs), including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP). The pact has helped promote Vietnam’s exports toAustralia, especially farm produce.
Currently, the three FTAs supporting Australia’s cotton exports toVietnam are the ASEAN-Australia, New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA), the CPTPP and the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). They enable Australia’s raw cottons toenjoy preferential tax rates in Vietnam.
Rob Cairns, Export Marketing Consultant of the Australian Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA), saidthat the Australian industry wishes to build deeper relations with the localtextile and apparel industry as demand is anticipated to grow in the comingyears./.
VNA
