Hanoi – Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to France from November 3-5 at the invitation of his French counterpart Jean Castex is expected to open up new opportunities and lift bilateral ties to a new height.

France is always one of the top trade partners of Vietnam in the European Union (EU). Two-way trade grew by 15.7 percent annually on average during 2011-2019. France is now the fourth largest importer of Vietnam in the EU with a share of nearly 10 percent of the country’s exports to the region, according to a representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of the European-American Markets.

Due to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade declined by 10 percent year-on-year in 2020 to 4.8 billion USD. Vietnam’s exports to France reached 187.9 million USD in September 2021 and 2.25 billion USD in nine months of this year, down 9.9 percent annually, mostly footwear, apparel, household appliances, agro-forestry-fisheries, gemstones, jewelries, electronics, mechanical engineering tools, rubber, coal, plastics, bamboo and rattan items.

Meanwhile, Vietnam mainly purchased high-value and hi-tech goods from France, including pharmaceuticals, machinery and equipment, and transport vehicles, amounting to over 1.5 billion USD last year, down 4.3 percent annually.

As of August 20, France ranked 16th out of 140 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 632 valid projects worth more than 3.6 billion USD.

In order to increase the presence of Vietnamese agro-fisheries in France, experts suggested outlining strategies to attract consumers as well as specific action programmes to build trust and prove product quality.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Vietnam, there are huge opportunities for Vietnamese goods to navigate France but its requirements are also high. Therefore, suppliers need to continue maintaining product quality, or invite French experts and skilled workers to Vietnam to inspect quality.

To lift two-way trade to a new height, experts proposed that Vietnam should ask the EU and France in particular to work closely together with the country to make the best use of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.