Proposal for South Korea to soon open market for grapefruit, processed chicken; Vietnamese steel "faces difficulties" when entering EU

Proposal for South Korea to soon open its market for grapefruit and processed chicken; Vietnamese steel "encountering difficulties" when entering the EU market... are highlights in the export news bulletin on June 26-30.

Xuất khẩu ngày 26-30/6: Đề xuất Hàn Quốc sớm mở cửa thị trường cho bưởi, thịt gà chế biến; thép Việt 'gặp khó' khi vào EU

It is necessary to continue to speed up the process of opening the market for Vietnamese grapefruit to Korea. (Source: Industry and Trade Newspaper)

Proposal for South Korea to soon open market for grapefruit and processed chicken

At the 5th Session of the Committee on Food Safety and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) under the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) on June 27 at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the National Information and Enquiry Point on Sanitation, Epidemiology and Sanitation (Vietnam SPS Office), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed 6 contents.

Specifically, continue to accelerate the progress of opening the market for Vietnamese grapefruit to Korea; completely transfer the pre-inspection program for mango products exported to Korea to the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) to implement, similar to the way it did with dragon fruit; approve the dossier to recognize additional mango growing areas of Vietnam exported to Korea; continue to maintain the training program to improve capacity on plant quarantine in Korea for plant quarantine officers of ASEAN countries, including Vietnam; support the organization of training courses to improve capacity on plant quarantine inspection for Vietnam, Korean lecturers will come to Vietnam to directly train on this work; consider opening the market for processed chicken products of Vietnam.

Korea also has 5 proposals for Vietnam. Specifically, support for the export of heat-treated pork products to Vietnam; registration of new export facilities for fresh poultry and heat-treated poultry; extension of Korean fresh poultry import licenses and speeding up quarantine procedures; export of Korean melon products to Vietnam; mutual electronic quarantine certification for aquatic products.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the first four months of this year, Vietnam's export turnover to South Korea reached 7.8 billion USD. Of which, the export of agricultural and aquatic products reached about 371 million USD. Currently, the demand for importing agricultural, aquatic products and processed foods from South Korea from the world is quite large, in which, importers of this country want to find more quality suppliers from Vietnam.

Vietnam-China two-way trade continues to flourish

In the first 5 months of 2023, despite being affected by the global economic downturn, Vietnam-China trade still reached an average of more than 10 billion USD/month.

Specifically, by the end of May, the total import-export turnover between the two countries reached 61.51 billion USD (an average of more than 12.3 billion USD/month), accounting for 23.58% of the total import-export turnover of the whole country.

Of which, exports reached 20.32 billion USD, down 6.7% over the same period last year, accounting for 15% of the country's total export turnover; imports reached 41.19 billion USD, down 17.5% over the same period last year, accounting for 32.8% of the country's total import turnover.

Notably, Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports to China have been increasingly prosperous, especially after China opened its official import market for durian. Statistics from the General Department of Customs show that durian exports increased dramatically in May, bringing the total export turnover of this item in the first 5 months of the year to more than half a billion USD. Durian exports to China alone reached 477 million USD, accounting for 95% of the country's total export turnover of this commodity group.

In the first 5 months of the year, fruit and vegetable exports to the Chinese market earned 1.286 billion USD, up 80.2% over the same period last year, equivalent to an additional 572.3 million USD. The Chinese market accounted for 63.47% of our country's fruit and vegetable export turnover in the first 5 months of the year.

Rice also recorded impressive growth in the Chinese market. In the first 5 months of the year, rice exports to China reached 632,469 tons, with a total turnover of more than 364 million USD, up nearly 63% in volume and nearly 79.2% in turnover compared to the same period last year. With the growth rate of turnover higher than volume, the average export value of rice to the Chinese market may also increase significantly.

However, in addition to the above-mentioned items, general merchandise exports to China have not recovered as expected after China opened its borders from January 8, 2023 due to general difficulties in the market situation. In the coming time, in order for export activities to the Chinese market to recover and develop sustainably, the Ministry of Industry and Trade recommends that businesses, especially those producing and exporting agricultural products and food, pay attention to research and promptly complete registration procedures before exporting agricultural products and food to the Chinese market.

Coordinate with Chinese partners to diversify export routes through border gates, avoid concentrating on certain border gates or take advantage of Vietnam-China sea and railway transport routes, minimizing the risk of congestion at border gates during peak season.

Carefully study information, signals, regulations and standards of the market, fully comply with conditions on business registration, quality standards, quarantine testing, packaging, traceability...

Increase participation in international fairs and exhibitions jointly organized by localities and central agencies of the two countries to enhance direct connections after the prolonged restrictions of the pandemic.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will organize many large-scale trade promotion activities in China, in which the Asia - Africa Market Department will have a number of activities targeting both traditional markets (specifically Guangxi) and new markets deep in mainland China (Shandong, Hebei).

Vietnamese steel "faces difficulties" when entering the EU

The Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU said that on June 26, 2023, the European Union (EU) issued Regulation (EU) 2023/1301 amending Regulation (EU) 2019/159 on the application of safeguard measures on certain imported steel products.

The amendment follows an investigation into whether an early termination of the safeguard measure before June 2023 would be justified based on aggregate import data for 2022. The amendment maintains the safeguard measure on steel imports into the EU until its expiry date of 30 June 2024. The measure will enter into force on 1 July 2023.

These safeguard measures will increase barriers to steel exports to the EU. (Source: Customs Newspaper)

All tariff rate quotas (TRQs) of the steel safeguard measure will continue to increase by 4% from 1 July 2023. Any WTO member that is a developing country is exempted from the application if its share of exports to the EU remains below 3% of total imports for each product type.

In addition, if in a given product category, the overall share of imports from developing countries (with individual shares below 3%) exceeds 9%, all developing countries will be subject to the same measures in that product category.

The Commission is committed to monitoring the increase in imports after the measure is adopted and to regularly review the list of excluded countries.

Under the above provision, countries that benefit from the opening of country-specific quotas include Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Oman, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam. Vietnam is additionally subject to category 26 and removed from category 3A compared to the old scope of application. All developing countries are included in categories 4B, 5, 25B and 28 because their total import share in 2022 is lower than 3%, which is higher than 9%.

The steel safeguard measures were introduced in the summer of 2018 after the US imposed 25% tariffs on the EU and other countries on national security grounds and concerns that the European market was bogged down by overcapacity. In 2022, Belarus and Russia will be completely excluded from the EU steel market and their quotas will be reallocated.

The EU steel safeguard is due to expire next year but could be extended, especially if the original motivation for the US Section 232 tariffs now being translated into tariff rate quotas remains in place against the EU.

Thus, together with the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which will be applied in the transitional period from 1 October 2023, these safeguard measures will increase barriers to steel exports to the EU.

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