Local companies could further improve their utilization rate of the trade agreement to gain a larger share of the EU market. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement has been a driving force for Vietnam’s exports as local firms are now taking good advantage of the trade deal. Processing catfish for export at Cantho. Photo: Hung Thap Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Tran Thanh Hai gave the assessment at a conference on the EVFTA on August 8. In 2021, bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and the EU rose by 14.5% year-on-year to US$57.01 billion, in which Vietnam exported goods and products worth $40.1 billion, or an increase of 14.2%; and imported $16.9 billion. “This helped the country maintain a trade surplus of over $23.2 billion last year,” Hai said. According to Hai, since the launch of the EVFTA on August 1, 2020, Vietnam’s exports to the EU rose by 15% to $83 billion. Over the past two … [Read more...] about EVFTA drives Vietnam’s exports forward