According to statistics of the General Department of Customs, although heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, global trade was bleak, in the first 5 months of 2020, the US is still the second largest trading partner of Vietnam, after China.
In particular, in the export direction, the US is still the largest market of our country. Specifically, in the first 5 months of the year, Vietnam's total export turnover to the US reached US $ 25.11 billion, up 10.6% over the same period in 2019 and accounting for 25.1% of the country's total export turnover.
Meanwhile, on the import side, the volume of goods imported from the US into Vietnam was worth 6 billion USD, up 5.4% over the same period last year and accounting for 6.2% of the total import turnover of the country.
According to the General Department of Customs, 25 years after the normalization and establishment of diplomatic relations (July 12, 1995 - July 12, 2020), trade activities between Vietnam and the US experienced a remarkable growth, is a bright spot in the relationship between the two countries.
Specifically, if in 1995 the import-export turnover between the two countries just stopped at 450 million USD, by the end of 2019, this figure had reached nearly 76 billion USD (reaching 75.72 billion USD), about 168 times more than that. compared with 1995.
Particularly in 2019, Vietnam's export turnover to the US reached US $ 61.35 billion, up 29.1% over 2018 and accounting for 23.2% of the country's total export turnover.
The world's largest economy is also Vietnam's largest export market, especially in the textile and garment sector.
Last year, the textile and garment export turnover to the US alone was worth $ 14.85 billion, up 8.4% over 2018 and accounting for 45.2% of the country's total export turnover of this commodity industry. Great position was maintained throughout the years.
In addition, in 2019, Vietnam also has many commodity lines with export turnover of billion USD, such as phones and accessories worth 8.9 billion USD; computers, electronic products and components reached 6.05 billion USD; machines, equipment, tools and spare parts reached 5.06 billion USD.
On the import side, turnover from the US market last year reached 14.37 billion USD, and accounted for 5.7% of the total import turnover of the country.
The main groups of imported goods from the US can be mentioned as: computers, electronic products and components with a value of 4.85 billion USD; group of raw materials and accessories for textiles, leather, shoes (including: cotton, textile fibers, fabrics, textile materials, garment, leather, shoes) reached 2.13 billion USD.
Compared with the estimated trade surplus of 3.5 billion USD given by the General Statistics Office, the realized figure was only 2.96 billion USD because exports were lower than expected, while imports increased sharply.
Looking back three quarters of the year 2020, the economy is gradually flourishing, opening the hope of a recovery in the last months of the year.
Many businesses are confident in the prospect of export recovery in the last months of the year.
In the first 6 months of 2020, amid the destruction of Covid-19, exports from Vietnam were almost on par with India's. In fact, Vietnam's exports this year will still grow 3% on average, while India's exports have grown negative 24% during the same period.