Current status of Vietnam's footwear exports

Viet Nam News Hanoi - The Vietnam Business Newspaper held a seminar entitled "Leveraging the advantages of enterprises to take advantage of the new opportunities brought by the Vietnam-UK Free Trade Agreement" by video on June 29 in Hanoi.

Despite the UKVFTA coming into force at the beginning of 2021 during the severe impact of the Newcastle pneumonia epidemic, trade between Vietnam and the UK has made positive progress.

Bilateral trade totals US$6.6 billion in 2021, equivalent to 2019, up 17 per cent from 2020.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in the first five months of 2022, Vietnam's exports to the UK continued to gain positive momentum, totalling US$2.38 billion, while Vietnam's imports from the UK amounted to over US$304 million. This reflects the enthusiasm and initiative of businesses in exploring new opportunities brought by the Vietnam-UK Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA).

Speaking about the benefits brought about by the UKVFTA, which has been in force for more than a year, Mr Ngo Trung Khanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Multilateral Trade Policy at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, highlighted that the UKVFTA has indeed helped Vietnam and the UK to achieve positive results.

Specifically, exports of some commodities have increased by triple or even quadruple digits; Vietnam's exports to the UK have increased by 17%, while the UK's exports to Vietnam have increased by over 23%.

Thus, the UKVFTA agreement is like a "two-way highway" that helps both Vietnam to expand its exports to the UK and the UK to Vietnam, thus helping to maintain a balance of trade between the two countries.

In addition, Vietnam negotiated and signed the UKVFTA agreement just as the UK was leaving the EU, when the UK was very focused on expanding trade relations and signing free trade agreements with countries that were once EU partners, which was also an advantage for Vietnamese businesses.

Ms Phan ThịThanh Xuân, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Leather Footwear and Handbag Association, said that previously, the UK was a member of the EU and one of the largest importers of footwear in the EU, accounting for 10-12% of the entire EU footwear imports.

However, following the UK's decision to leave the EU, footwear exports have been severely affected, with orders falling by 50%, which is extremely worrying for companies.

Since the signing of the UKVFTA agreement, the volume of exports to the UK market has increased again, and in the first five months of 2022, Vietnam exported leather footwear to the UK in the amount of US$330 million, equivalent to half of the full-year plan for 2022.

Ms. Phan Thi Youth also pointed out that the whole EU market, especially the UK, is always very demanding, especially in terms of product safety, production processes and so on.

As for leather footwear goods, to export to the UK market, various companies have to import leather because without quality leather, footwear cannot enter the UK market. In the future, the enterprises concerned will face higher challenges than environmental requirements in their production process.

According to Ms Phan Thi Thanh, tackling climate change, reducing waste and waste, and the greenhouse effect from the production process will be set as codes of conduct that manufacturers will be required to meet in order to export successfully.

Therefore, Vietnamese companies will have to improve and enhance their capabilities in order to meet the requirements of their partners.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)