The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has said that seafood exports to Europe have seen many positive signs since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect at the beginning of this month.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has entered the legal scrubbing phase and is expected to be signed soon without India, the Trade Ministry has said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade, rice exports to the EU (except the UK) totaled US$10.9 million in 2019, up 92.4 percent from 2018. These relatively modest exports stem from the customs duties of 175, 65 and 211 euro per tonne that the EU imposed on Vietnamese de-husked, broken and paddy rice, respectively.

In the first months of the year, the global economy declined due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, severely effecting Vietnam’s export activities. Although exports in June have seen positive signs compared to the previous period, the recovery process will certainly take a long time.

• On August 1st, 2020, the first protocol to amend the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) between Japan and five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), consisting of Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam came into effect. • The AJCEP came into force in December 2008 and covers trade in goods and services, investment, and economic cooperation. • The protocol adds provisions concerning trade in services, movement of business people and investments, and is expected to strengthen reciprocal economic ties in wide-ranging fields between Japan and ASEAN countries.

In July 2020, Vietnam's total import and export value reached nearly US$47 billion, considered the month with the highest turnover since the beginning of the year. In which, our country's trade surplus reached more than US$8 billion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in March announced incentives that make niche firms -- electronics manufacturers -- eligible for a payment of 4%-6% of their incremental sales over the next five years. The result: about two dozen companies pledged $1.5 billion of investments to set up mobile-phone factories in the country.

The anti-dumping investigation focuses on wine in containers 2 liters (68 fluid ounces) or smaller, which accounts for most Australian exports, the Chinese Ministry for Commerce said.

Japanese enterprises are expanding investment in sectors that are seen to have growth potential in Vietnam, according to experts.

Research by the Stenn Group finds that a UK business could take a $3.93m hit due to the escalating tension between the two countries