Deputy head of the Trade Promotion Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Ta Hoang Linh said with a population of over 600 million people and total gross domestic product (GDP) of over 6 trillion USD, South America is a potential market for Vietnamese businesses.
At the same time, he highlighted difficulties and challenges facing businesses when entering the market such as geographical distance, transportation cost, cultural and institutional differences.
The bilateral trade between Vietnam and Latin America is quite balanced. In 2014, Vietnam exported 4.71 billion USD worth of goods to the market, a year-on-year rise of 36.8 percent. Vice versa, the country imported 4.8 billion USD from the market, up 44.9 percent.
Vietnam mainly exported footwear, seafood, rice, garment-textile, coffee, plastic products, electronic equipment and components, and computers, while importing textile-garment and footwear materials, paper, plastic material, cattle-feed, soybeans, and cotton.
Former trade counselor of Vietnam in Chile Tran Dinh Van said Chile is one of the leading open economies in the world, and Vietnam’s goods face fierce competition by counterparts from the South American region and Asia.

Currently, Vietnam has surpassed India and Thailand to become the biggest ASEAN exporter to Chile, ranking ninth among countries exporting to Chile.
The free trade agreement between Vietnam and Chile took effect in January 2014, covering 9,000 lines of products.

This has created good opportunities for businesses to boost exports to the market.