AsemconnectVietnam - According to the General Department of Customs, the total value of Vietnam's import and export of goods in 2024 was estimated at 786.07 billion USD, up by 15.4% over the same period of 2023.

Efforts of the General Department of Customs and the Ministry of Industry and Trade in facilitating trade
The General Department of Customs has implemented many solutions to facilitate trade through close coordination with ministries and branches, improving the effectiveness of the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window. As of December 26, 2024, the National Single Window has 250 administrative procedures of 13 ministries and branches connected with more than 76,200 enterprises. The General Department of Customs continued to expand non-ASEAN partners and exchange documents through the ASEAN single window mechanism as well as continued to be an active focal point advising the Ministry of Finance and the Government to promote reform of specialized management and inspection of import and export goods.
The Industry and Trade sector has also implemented many solutions to promote exports. Accordingly, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reviewed and adjusted the issuance of preferential Certificates of Origin (C/O) in the electronic environment.
Specifically, from January 1, 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued 13 electronic C/O forms to enterprises including: AANZ, AJ, E, AHK, RCEP, CPTPP, VJ, VC, VN-CU and S. For C/O form D and C/O forms AK, VK (to Korea), and has presided over and coordinated with the Ministry of Finance (under the General Department of Customs) to transmit electronic C/O data. The issuance of electronic C/O has actively contributed to reducing costs and time for businesses as well as state agencies.
According to information from the Import-Export Department - Ministry of Industry and Trade, with many efforts, the number of preferential C/Os issued in the period from 2020 to present has increased by an average of about 20% per year, and in 2024 it is estimated to increase by 18% compared to 2023.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has advised the Government to issue a Decree amending the Decree on border trade; submitted to the Government a draft Strategy for logistics service development to 2030, with a vision to 2050; a draft Decree amending the Decree on rice export business. These documents will help create a legal corridor for export activities.
Agricultural products were one of the key export items in 2024 and the export turnover of this item also reached 62 billion USD for the first time. At the recent conference to summarize 2024 and deploy tasks for 2025 of the Industry and Trade sector, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vo Van Hung assessed that with the synchronous participation of ministries, branches, and localities, especially the participation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in export promotion activities, facilitating export goods... in 2024, there has been a breakthrough in the production and export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products. Production value increased by over 3.2%, for the first time agricultural exports exceeded 60 billion USD (estimated at 62.7 billion USD in 2024), an increase of over 18% compared to 2023, with 11 items continuing to maintain an export turnover value of over 1 billion USD. Vietnam's footwear and handbag exports to most markets increased in 2024 with an estimated turnover of about 26-27 billion USD, an increase of 3 billion USD compared to 2023.
Opportunities and challenges for Vietnam's import and export in 2025
According to analysis by economic experts and forecasts by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, import and export activities in 2025 still face many risks and are difficult to predict, such as: The US Federal Reserve (Fed) is expected to only cut interest rates twice in 2025, after lowering interest rates by a total of 1 percentage point since September; the crisis in the Middle East has affected freight transport in the world and in Vietnam. In addition, the trend of trade protectionism is more prevalent, many countries have measures to bring investment back to their home countries, creating trade barriers. Developed markets such as the EU focus on sustainable development and have been introducing many new regulations such as the Carbon Adjustment Mechanism, the European Anti-Deforestation Regulation, etc., which have an impact on some of our country's key export products.
In particular, the Import-Export Department - Ministry of Industry and Trade also assessed that the fluctuations in trade policies of major countries when the United States enters a new presidential term are strong and unpredictable factors.
In the context of many unpredictable factors affecting import and export activities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade still shows determination and high efforts, setting a challenging target of export growth in 2025 reaching about 12% compared to 2024.
To achieve this result, the Ministry of Industry and Trade determined that in the coming time, it will focus on supporting businesses to take advantage of commitments in FTAs, especially the CPTPP, EVFTA, UKVFTA to boost exports, through propaganda on rules of origin and issuance of Certificates of Origin, opportunities and ways to take advantage of opportunities from the Agreements.
At the same time, the Ministry also continues to promote negotiations with China to open more export markets for other Vietnamese fruit and vegetable products as well as focuses on improving efficiency and regulating the speed of customs clearance of import and export goods at the border gate area between Vietnam and China, especially for seasonal agricultural and aquatic products; quickly and strongly shift to official exports; and to focus on trade defense work in the face of the increasing trend of trade defense investigations against Vietnamese export goods. In particular, the ministry continues to effectively implement major projects on trade defense to facilitate export goods; focus on promoting trade and export promotion activities for key markets, especially making the most of market space, promoting the effectiveness of free trade agreements, especially new generation free trade agreements such as CPTPP, EVFTA, RCEP... and coordinate with relevant units to support businesses in implementing trade promotion activities in new markets, potential markets where businesses have not yet directly implemented trade promotion activities; prioritize promoting activities to provide market information to businesses.
CK
Source: VITIC/ haiquanonline.com.vn