Vietnam on Monday ratified a significant trade deal with the European Union, which is expected to boost the country’s manufacturing sector and exports, as it recovers from a dip caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first quarter of this year, the export turnover of processed agricultural products of Vietnam reached US$166 million, an increase of 33 percent over the same period last year.

The lockdowns that started in China’s Hubei province on 23 January were a major disruption to the international supply of manufactured goods. Its capital Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, is an industrial powerhouse that produces nearly 10 per cent of all motor vehicles made in China and, for example, is home to more than 100 parts suppliers for Honda alone.

The EU - Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is expected to bring both opportunities and challenges for businesses, especially small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This was why SMEs should fully understand the provisions of the EVFTA.

The enforcement of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will promote export-import activities, thus bringing direct benefits to the country's logistics industry, experts have said.

Many Chinese wooden furniture manufacturers have been found setting up foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in Vietnam to ‘fabricate’ Vietnamese origin for their exports to the US.

In order for Vietnamese goods that are exported to the EU to enjoy preferential tariffs in the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), businesses must obtain a thorough grasp of the provisions set out in the trade deal which stipulate very strict requirements regarding the origin of products, according to insiders.

The rise of Vietnam has been highlighted in a recent survey of the Australian Chamber of Commerce (AustCham), as Vietnam is now considered the most favourable place to expand business, surpassing the Philippines and Myanmar in recent years as well as Australia’s long-term business partners namely Malaysia and Singapore.

Economic ministers from the ten ASEAN Member States and the Plus Three Partners (China, Japan, and Republic of Korea) have affirmed the need to keep the markets open for trade and investment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, countries are investing in strategic narratives to tell the world their version of the crisis and present themselves as safe, efficient and reliable actors. South Korea and Japan — two early victims of the virus — are no exception to this trend. Yet their efforts to broadcast the success of their approaches in managing COVID-19 are succumbing to both countries’ tendency to draw direct critical comparisons with one another.