Taking advantage of the opportunity from EVFTA, the trade surplus in the first two months of the year to the EU market reached USD 4 billion, an increase of 36.3% over the same period last year.

From August 1, 2020, when the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) officially took effect, Vietnam's export turnover in general, exports to the EU market in particular have achieved impressive results. By the end of December 2020, Vietnam's export turnover to the EU market reached USD 15.62 billion, increased by 3.8% over the same period in 2019. Average monthly export value of about USD 3.12 billion/month.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, only in the first two months of 2021, Vietnam's export to the EU reached USD 6.3 billion, an increase of 22.7% over the same period last year. Vietnamese enterprises quickly approached and took advantage of EVFTA's opportunities, resulting in a trade surplus in the first 2 months of the year with the EU market of USD 4 billion, an increase of 36.3% over the same period last year.

Seafood is one of the typical commodities, recording remarkable growth in exports to the EU thanks to the impact of the EVFTA Agreement earlier this year. Seafood export value in the first 2 months of 2021 reached USD 1.01 billion, an increase of 0.7% compared to the same period in 2020.  In January only, 2021, seafood export value increased in most markets, of which the EU was one of the markets with 16% increase in value over the same period last year, reaching USD 63.97 million.

Especially recently, the Nordic market is attracting a lot of attention in Vietnam's export activities. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that thanks to the EVFTA, Vietnam's agricultural products are expected to have more "leverage" to penetrate deeper into the Nordic market, which previously mainly preferred to import goods from European countries.

According to the International Trade Center (ITC), among the 30 countries with the largest import turnover into Northern Europe, Asia has only a few markets such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. Among ASEAN countries, Vietnam is the largest trading partner in the Nordic region. Two-way trade turnover has even increased during the pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the upcoming period, Nordic countries continue to focus their resources on recovering the economy after the pandemic, therefore, consumer demand for goods and services is expected to increase sharply after being held back for a long time. Many forecasts show that the average import and export in 2021 of the Nordic countries will increase by about 5%, Iceland alone will increase by about 17%.

Kylie Nguyen