Workers select quality cashew nuts for export. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — As one of Việt Nam's major trading partners, in recent years the scale of bilateral trade between Việt Nam and Australia has continued to increase strongly thanks to the exploitation of multilateral trade agreements.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s official visit to Australia is expected to create new momentum for the bilateral relations, including their trade ties.

The PM left Hà Nội on March 4 morning for the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia dialogue relations, and official visits to Australia and New Zealand from March 5 – 11.

Statistics from the Vietnamese General Department of Customs show that bilateral trade between the two countries reached US$14 billion in 2023, of which Việt Nam's export turnover to Australia reached $5.2 billion while its import turnover from Australia reached $8.5 billion.

This makes Việt Nam's trade deficit from Australia worth $3.3 billion, down 28.1 per cent year-on-year.

Commenting on the Australian market, a representative of the Asia-Africa Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said that with these statistics, Australia was Việt Nam's 10th largest trading partner last year, while Việt Nam is also Australia's 10th largest trading partner.

Nguyễn Phú Hòa, head of the Việt Nam Trade Office in Australia, said that the bilateral trade between Việt Nam and Australia had very positive recovery and growth in January this year.

The total trade turnover of goods between Việt Nam and Australia reached $1.25 billion in January this year, an increase of 43.4 per cent over the same period last year.

In particular, many products that are Việt Nam's strengths, although their export turnover to Australia is still modest, have witnessed strong growth in January such as coffee, iron and steel of all kinds, paper and paper products, and rice.

Based on the trade co-operation results achieved by the two countries, Việt Nam has complete grounds to be optimistic about the prospects of economic and trade co-operation, said Hòa.

Because the two economies have high complementarities; in particular, Việt Nam is strong in electronics, machinery, textiles and footwear, and Australia has many resources and high-quality fuel.

“Việt Nam's products are rich and diverse; a number of Vietnamese products have reached the market and affirmed their brands and quality such as seafood, pepper, textiles and footwear. In addition, many products are recording strong turnover growth in recent years and have great potential to boost exports to Australia such as confectionery and products from cereals, rice, clinker and cement,” commented Hòa. — VNS