Luong Hoang Thai, director of Multilateral Trade Policy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), acknowledged the potential for Vietnam to grow alongside major trade deal expansion at a December 26 conference to summarise the achievements of Vietnam after three years in the CPTPP.

“During the past time, the MoIT has cooperated with ministries and the bloc’s members to discuss the expansion of the CPTPP in the context that a number of economies are interested in being members,” Thai said.

“Having more members from Asia in particular means that Vietnam will lose the advantage of being a pioneer in the region in establishing the relationship with countries in CPTPP – thus, the business community needs to foster the opportunities more rapidly in order to get the full benefits from the agreement,” he said.

In 2021, the total export turnover of Vietnam to CPTPP members reached $45.7 billion, up 18.1 per cent on-year. The import turnover from these members to Vietnam was $45.5 billion, up 37.6 per cent on-year.

In the first ten months of 2022, the total import-export value between Vietnam and CPTPP economies was $88.1 billion, up 19.2 per cent on-year, including $45.1 billion in export value and $43 billion in import turnover.

The CPTPP is a free trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Ecuador filed its application to join at the end of 2021, while Costa Rica announced an intention to apply in July this year. The UK began negotiations about joining in February, while China submitted a formal application in May.