A year after the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) came into effect in early 2021, trade between the two countries has shown significant growth despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, said an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Accordingly, trade between Vietnam and the UK reached 6.6 billion USD in 2021, an increase of 17% on the year and equivalent to the pre-pandemic period.

While Vietnamese export to the UK rose 16.4% year-on-year to 5.7 billion USD, UK’s export to Vietnam also witnessed a gain of 23.6% to nearly 850 million USD.

In 2021, products imported from the UK with the highest growth rate respectively were common metals (426%), phones and components (219%), textile, garment and footwear materials (24.7%), pharmaceuticals (35.4%), and cars (28%), according to data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Vietnamese products with a sharp growth in shipments to the UK market were fruits and vegetables (67%), coffee (17%), pepper (49%), iron and steel (1,269%), and toys and sports equipment (19%).

“The results showed that the UKVFTA is like a two-way high-speed train, helping us to boost exports to the UK and vice versa, the UK also increases exports to Vietnam”, Ngo Chung Khanh, deputy head of Multilateral Trade Policy Department, at a webinar on “Promoting the strengths of businesses - Utilising opportunities from the UKVFTA.”

This helped equalise the trade balance between the two countries, he added.
Data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that in the first half of 2022, the country exported 2.9 billion USD of commodities to the UK while importing more than 372.5 million USD.

This shows the activeness and initiative of enterprises in exploiting new opportunities from the agreement./.