FTAs help strengthen Vietnam – Japan trade cooperation: official

Japan is the partner that has signed the most bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with Vietnam which open up many opportunities for stronger trade cooperation between the two nations, according to Tran Quang Huy, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Asia-Africa Market Department.
FTAs help strengthen Vietnam – Japan trade cooperation: official ảnh 1A lychee processing line for export to Japan (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Japan is the partner that has signedthe most bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with Vietnam whichopen up many opportunities for stronger trade cooperation between the two nations,according to Tran Quang Huy, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade'sAsia-Africa Market Department.

Trade deals such as the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (AJCEP), the Vietnam – Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA),the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have createdan extremely important cooperation framework, contributing to promoting trade,investment and business relations between the two countries in accordance with theprinciple of mutual benefit.

Notably, Vietnam and Japan have many cooperation opportunitiesin the fields of trade, technological innovation, digital transformation, and supplychain diversity, Huy said.

The structure of export and import products of the two countriesis clearly complementary to each other without direct competition.

Statisticsshow that bilateral trade turnover has increasedsteadily over the years, hitting 40 billion USD in 2020, 42.7 billion USD in2021, 47.6 billion USD in 2022, and nearly 37 billion USD in the first 10months of 2023.

Japan is the third largest foreign investor in Vietnam with 5,227valid projects worth over 71.41 billion USD by October 20, 2023. Meanwhile, Vietnamhas 106 investment projects in Japan with a total registered investment capitalof about 19.5 million USD.

According to Dang Phuc Nguyen, Secretary General of the Vietnam Fruit & Vegetables Association, the Japanesemarket accounts for about 5% of Vietnam's fruit export turnover, with a totalvalue of about 150 million USD.
Last year,Japan imported 165 million USD worth of fruits from Vietnam, accounting for 4%of the fruit and vegetable market share.  However, Japan's standards for imported fruitand vegetable are very high.

Currently, a number of Vietnamese fruits occupy a large marketshare and are increasingly popular in the Japanese market such as dragon fruit,mango, durian, coconut, lychee, longan, and banana.

According to Pham Quoc Liem, General Director of U&I AgricultureJSC (Unifarm) in the southern province of Binh Duong, the company exports 10containers of banana and one container of melon to Japan each week.

However, to enter the Japanese market, agro-forestry-aquaculture productsmust ensure standards of food hygiene and safety and animal and plantquarantine, and are required to be produced and raised in line with Japaneseagricultural standards of GAP, HACCP, and JAS.

Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Japan Ta Minh Duc advised Vietnamesebusinesses to pay attention to stabilising product quality, and stabilising preservationtechnology for fruit products exported to Japan.

Vietnamese exporters should not increase prices too much toavoid losing competitiveness as inflation in Japan is very low, Minh said.

Tradeexperts predicted that cooperation between Vietnam and Japan will be supportedmore as businesses from both sides are exploiting advantages and tax incentives fromFTAs such as CPTPP and RCEP.

Vietnam has been an attractive destination for Japanesebusinesses thanks to its market size and growth potential, stable political andsocial situation, and high-quality human resources, theystressed.

A 2022 survey report of the Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO) shows that 60% of Japanesefirms plan to expand operations in Vietnam in the next two years.

Insiders said this will be an important motivation to promotestronger trade exchange between the two sides in the coming time./.
VNA

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