Vietnam’s exports to the US will see an increase of at least 10 percent in 2010, according to Vietnamese commercial counsellor in the US Ngo Van Thoan.

Talking with the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in the US, Thoan said his forecast was based on the encouraging results in two-way trade between Vietnam and the US in 2009 despite difficulties caused by the global financial crisis.

By October 2009, Vietnam’s exports to the US fetched almost 10.3 billion USD, a year-on-year drop of 2.3 percent, the lowest level compared with other exporters to the US such as Canada, Germany and Japan. Germany’s exports fell by more than 34 percent while Japan and Canada’s exports, by 29 percent, respectively.

Vietnam can jump to the 25th or the 26th this year from the 30 th place in 2008 among US exporters.

Vietnam’s export value dropped in 2009 due to the decrease in prices but the market-share has been improved for most products. Its main staples, namely garments and apparels, footwear and woodwork managed to maintain high growth

By the end of October, 2009, the country’s garments and apparels exports to the US ranked second after China with nearly 4.5 billion USD while footwear won the second place from Italy with a year-on-year rise of 11.7 percent this year.

However, he warned that the prices cannot recover soon and the US’s application of protection policies and regulations such as technical barriers will pose hindrances to all exporters to the US, including Vietnam.

The diplomat warned Vietnamese export businesses of the US’s application of farm law and goods origin and import safety regulations.

Export businesses should invest more in technology to meet the stricter technical and environmental standards as they are becoming universal worldwide, he said./.