Vietnam and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstanshould push the import-export of products of each side’s strength, inorder to tap into the great potential of bilateral trade.
Duong Hoang Minh, Vice Head of the European Market Department underthe Ministry of Industry and Trade, made the suggestion at a seminar ontrade ties between Vietnam and the union, held by the ministry and theEuropean Union Multilateral Trade Assistance Project in Ho Chi MinhCity on December 17.
The Vietnamese trade officialsaid as Russia has become a member of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO), the two sides can make use of the organisation’srules to expand their market.
Bilateral tradebetween Vietnam and the Customs Union has grown from 1.87 billionUSD in 2009 to 2.24 billion USD in 2011. Main imports-exports areseafood, telephones and spare parts, vegetables and fruits, garment andtextile, footwear and agricultural products, Minh added.
Discussing trade potential between Vietnam and Russia alone,Golikov Maksim, an official from the Russian Trade Representative Agencyin Vietnam , said that the two governments are working to expandcooperation to new areas apart from the traditional ties in oil andmineral exploitation and banking.
At the event,the ministry’s experts gave their assessment on opportunities andchallenges when an agreement on a free trade area between Vietnam andthe union is put into place.-VNA