AsemconnectVietnam - In the first four months of the year, the trade turnover between Vietnam and the United States decreased in both exports and imports.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the United States was Vietnam's largest export market in the first four months of 2023 with an estimated turnover of 28.45 billion USD, accounting for 26% of total export turnover. However, this number has decreased by 21% over the same period last year.
In the opposite direction, the import turnover of goods from the United States reached 4.08 billion USD, down by 11.9% year – on - year.
Export turnover of many products to the US market is facing difficulties. For example, with seafood, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the US market is increasingly sinking into the situation of rising food prices and decreasing consumption. American families are fed up with the fact that food prices are so high. Now, Americans have considered cutting spending on low-value items, buying less non-essential groceries, buying bulk and unbranded products, and focusing on staple items. Some people even buy and eat less. Consumers are looking to spend only on the goods they really need.
That situation caused Vietnam's seafood exports to the US to maintain a deep drop of 51% in April, making the US fall to the 3rd position in seafood import markets, after Japan and China. In the first 4 months of 2023, seafood exports to the US were estimated at 418 million USD, down by over 57% over the same period last year.
According to the representative of the Vietnam Trade Office in the United States, many reports and analysis indicate that the US economy will be in recession in 2023, but this decline will be relatively light and short, growth will recover in 2024 when inflation continues to fall and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) begins to ease monetary policy.
In 2023, the Vietnam Trade Office in the United States forecast that it is possible to expect the two-way trade turnover between the two countries to continue to exceed the 100 billion USD mark. Therefore, businesses need to actively look for customers, maintain old ones, and take advantage of every opportunity to restore exports to this most important market.
The United States has always maintained its position as a major market of our country for many years now. Before 1995, the exports to the US were insignificant, and Vietnam was in a very low trade deficit position, because the two countries had not yet normalized their diplomatic relations.
Since 1995, after Vietnam and the United States normalized diplomatic relations, the exports to the US have reached a good level, increasing rapidly and continuously over the years and turning into a position of trade surplus. In 2001, after the Bilateral Trade Agreement was signed, the exports to the United States crossed the 1 billion USD mark for the first time. In 2008, after Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), Vietnam's exports to the US for the first time surpassed the 11 billion USD mark and the trade surplus was quite high.
In particular, in 2022, the United States became the first export market of Vietnam to surpass 100 billion USD, reaching more than 123 billion USD, up by 11% over the same period of 2021.
CK
Source: VITIC/congthuong.vn