Advice to help Vietnam buy billions of dollars more of US agricultural products

On April 6, Mr. Nguyen Tri Cong, Chairman of the Dong Nai Province Livestock Association, said he had just sent an official dispatch to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Governor of the State Bank Nguyen Thi Hong proposing solutions to buy billions of dollars more worth of US agricultural products.

According to Mr. Cong, the US imposing a 46% tax on goods from Vietnam will cause great difficulties for export industries as well as the general economy.

He learned that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is implementing the GSM-102 program, which provides credit guarantees to encourage the export of US agricultural goods with a deferred interest rate of only 1%/year.

On the Vietnamese side, there are currently 6 banks participating in the GSM-102 program, but the interest rates offered by these banks are not reasonable, leading to ineffective implementation.

Therefore, the Dong Nai Province Livestock Association proposed that the Prime Minister and the Governor of the State Bank pay attention and consider creating conditions for banks to guarantee the GSM-102 program with an interest rate of 1 - 1.5%/year to attract importers.

According to Mr. Cong, the US is a great source of input products for Vietnam's agriculture such as soybeans and soybean meal, corn, DDGS (dried distillers grains) - products that Vietnam has previously mainly imported with a value of billions of USD to serve the livestock industry.

American soybeans are introduced in Vietnam.

In addition, the US is also a supplier of high-quality pig breeds. On average, a Vietnamese pig breeding farm imports 250 grandparent pigs (GGP) each year, worth about 0.5 million USD.

According to the schedule, in June 2025, Dong Nai Livestock Association and a number of livestock farms will go to the US to sign contracts to buy great-grandfather pigs and import nutritional raw materials for livestock to improve the quality of pork, beef and the livestock environment.

"If participating in the GSM-102 program with an interest rate of 1 - 1.5%/year, plus reduced tariffs on agricultural products from the US, Vietnam can certainly import billions of dollars more each year, helping to reduce costs for the Vietnamese livestock industry and improve competitiveness in integration," Mr. Cong affirmed.

According to research, as of March 2025, in the Asian region, the GSM-102 program only applies to a few markets such as: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan (China), Thailand and Vietnam.

Banks from participating countries are also on the approved list. On the US side, there are also limits on the number of guarantor banks and exporting enterprises that can participate.

Source: NLDO

Source: https://baotayninh.vn/hien-ke-giup-viet-nam-co-the-mua-them-hang-ti-usd-nong-san-my-a188496.html