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The Vietnam-Europe Free Trade Agreement has a positive impact on Vietnam's aquatic product exports

According to news from Vietnam's "Vietnam News Agency" on August 24, on August 1, the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has officially entered into force for one year. Over the past year, many industries, including the export of aquatic products, have made good use of the agreement.

According to data from the Vietnam Aquatic Products Processing and Exporting Association (VASEP), in the first six months of 2021, Vietnam’s aquatic product exports to the EU market exceeded US$486 million, an increase of 20% over the same period in 2020. Capture fishery products increased by 24%, reaching 154 million U.S. dollars, and aquaculture products increased by 18%, reaching 333 million U.S. dollars. Therefore, the EU has become Vietnam’s fourth largest export market for aquatic products, second only to the United States, Japan and China, and accounts for 11% of Vietnam’s aquatic product exports.

Liang Huangtai, Director of the Multilateral Trade Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, said that aquatic products are one of the products that make full use of the opportunities brought by the EVFTA agreement. Adjusted industries. In the first six months of the first year of the EVFTA agreement, the industry seized the opportunity and realized exports accounted for more than 70% of Vietnam’s total exports to the EU market. Compared with other agreements, this is A very optimistic number."

Nguyen Huai Nam, deputy secretary-general of VASEP, also made the same assessment. He emphasized that in the context of the European IUU (Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated Fishing) "yellow card" has not been cancelled and is adversely affected by the epidemic, Vietnam has recently seen a strong export of aquatic products to Europe. The growth benefited from the good use of the EVFTA agreement. In other words, EVFTA has had a very positive impact on the industry. He believes that the EVFTA agreement has a very large impact, because since the date of entry into force of the agreement, most of the key product categories in Vietnam enjoy 0% tariffs, such as shrimp, tuna, squid, octopus and other seafood. This is the first impact and immediate effect we can clearly see.