HANOI: Doanh Nhan Sai Gon has quoted statistics from the General Statistics Office (GSO) as reporting that Vietnam’s trade deficit with China in 2015 climbed to $32.3 billion, an increase of 12.5 percent, the highest figure so far. GSO said the sharpest increase occurred with the import of steel & metal, automobiles, car parts and the input materials for the domestic textile & footwear production.
However, Vietnam not only has to buy Chinese input materials and machines, it also has to buy products it can make domestically, including farm produce. The petty merchants at the Thu Duc farm produce wholesale market in HCM City admitted that a lot of products available there are from China.
Hanh, a merchant, said spices of different kinds have been selling very well these days as when Tet nears. On ordinary days, she can sell 50-70 bags a night, but now the sales can be double.
“Several tons of garlic and onions are sold every night. The products are carried to HCM City and neighboring provinces,” she said. Do Thi Lanh, a merchant at An Suong Market, when asked why Chinese goods ccould sell so well, said that Chinese goods were dirt cheap, so the demand was high. “Chinese cabbage is priced at just VND7,000 per kilo. Meanwhile, Vietnam cabbage from Hanoi is sold at VND30,000 per kilo,” she explained.
A report of GDC showed Vietnam imported $165 million worth of vegetables and fruits from China in the first 11 months of 2015, up by 21.2 percent compared with the same period in 2014. The actual import turnover would be even higher, if counting the imports across the border gates which were not taken into account. According to VASEP, the import turnover of seafood products from China, including Hong Kong in 2015, was $54.6 million, up by 42.2 percent compared with 2014.
Meanwhile, Dat Viet cited a Ministry of Industry and Trade’s report as showing that in the first eight months of 2015 alone, the vehicle imports from China soared by 455 percent compared with same period in 2014. While economists repeatedly warn about the heavy reliance on Chinese imports, businessmen affirm that they will still need to continue buying goods from China.
Tran Viet Anh, deputy chair of the HCM City Plastics Association, said on Tuoi Tre that in 2015, Vietnam had to spend $1 billion to import plastics, including semi-finished products such as BOPP sheets (biaxially oriented polypropylene). “No domestic enterprise can make the products,” Anh explained, adding that Vietnam would have to import the products for 10 more years at least.
