The nation’s trade with other ASEAN countries reached 17.8 billion USD in the first 10 months of the year, down 30 percent on the same period last year.

Le Trieu Dung, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s ASEAN Department, released the figures at a seminar held in the central city of Da Dang on Dec. 23.

Dung attributed the significant decline in trade with Vietnam ’ biggest trading partner to the world economic crisis. “But a bright spot was that the trade deficit with other ASEAN countries dropped significantly for the period,” he said.

The nation exported about 7.1 billion USD worth of goods to ASEAN and imported about 10.7 billion USD, creasing a 10-month trade deficit of 3.6 billion USD. This was far lower than last year’s 9.3 billion USD total deficit, he said.

The deficit was due to falls in imports, including petroleum. “Many goods are also showing good competitiveness on the ASEAN market, like confectionery and fruits.”

Dung said enterprises needed to make more effort to boost exports, especially in sea-food, coffee, garments and textiles, and electronics. Firms should also speed up the development of supporting industries and material sources.

The ministry urgent firms to carefully study investment and trade agreements with the ASEAN, especially tax agreements, to make best use of preferences offered.

From January 1, six nations, including, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, will cut their import taxes to zero percent from the current 0-5 percent, under ASEAN agreements.

Dung said this would be a great opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises. But only about 20 percent of domestic companies now enjoyed ASEAN tax preferences as most failed to meet local or ASEAN- content requirement of 40 percent. “Many still lack knowledge about agreements by the association”./.