Vietnam is creating a new horizon on the German market, especially when the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Union takes effect.
Bui Huy Son, director general of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, revealed that, “Vietnam and Germany are seeing huge opportunities to effectively exploit each other’s potential. The Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (Vietnam-EU FTA), which is expected to be signed by the end of the year, would further facilitate cooperation between the business communities of both countries.”
Germany is now Vietnam’s biggest European trade partner, as the two-way trade turnover amounted to nearly US$8 billion in 2014, more than 20% of Vietnam’s overall trade with the EU.
Furthermore, Germany is also among the biggest official development assistance donors to Vietnam and serves as a gateway for Vietnamese products to penetrate and expand markets in other countries in the region.
In recent years, many of Vietnam’s goods have managed to gain a strong foothold in Germany, including seafood, garments, furniture, coffee, plastics, leather, footwear, and electronic products and components.
In the last three years, Germany has consistently seized the top position in the EU and second place globally, following just behind the US, in importing Vietnamese tuna, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep).
Vasep predicted that Germany’s demand for seafood products, particularly canned tuna, will be on the rise, along with Vietnamese fruit, like bananas, mangoes, oranges, grapes, apples and peaches.
