According
to the agreement, Vietnam will have great opportunities to sell strong
products to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), encompassing Russia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Aquatic products, garments
and leather will be the key beneficiaries of the deal as they enjoy a
zero percent tariff.
Dang Phuong Dung, Vice President and
Secretary General of the Vietnam Textile Association (VITAS) felt upbeat
about Vietnamese textile and garments’ market share in the Union,
predicting that two-way garment trade will grow by 50 percent the first
year of the agreement’s implementation and 20 percent over the next five
years.
Vietnam will be the Union’s fourth provider of apparel from the current eighth place, she said.
Thanks
to the signing of free trade deals between Vietnam and the Republic of
Korea, the EAEU and the EU, a wave of foreign capital has flown into the
garment and textile sector from the outset of this year, broadening
opportunities for Vietnamese products.
However, Dung said that
enterprises need to make efforts to increase their competitiveness, a
move to leverage potential spurred by the signed agreements.
On
the contrary, the deal will bring major competition to the Vietnamese
steel sector as Russian steel has low production costs and high quality,
said Nguyen Van Sua, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association.
Each
year, Russia produces 70 million tonnes of steel using advanced
technology. Each tonne of steel billet produced in Russia costs 50
kilowatt hours of power, while Vietnam consumes 10 times higher to
produce the same.
Furthermore, most Vietnamese steel enterprises are small-scale operations and lack advanced technology.
Sua
suggested that Vietnamese enterprises need to expand their knowledge
about international trade to protect their production, and the
Government should deploy legal trade tools to protect and support
domestic steel production.
Meanwhile, a representative from the
association said steel businesses should increase their competitiveness
capacity for effective production and fight trade fraud./.
