Is the door to US market narrowing for Vietnamese exporters?

Vietnam last year was the 13th largest exporter to the US, with export turnover increasing by 14.9% compared with 2015.

However, many Vietnamese exporters complain it is becoming more difficult to export products to the US.

Bich Chi, specializing in rice products, has stopped selling its goods to New York and has found it difficult to approach supermarket chains in other states in the US.

Bich Chi exports US$6 million worth of products to the US every year. However, its products are mostly sold in small supermarkets owned by Vietnamese, or at Walong and Gia Thanh owned by Chinese. 

Walmart also sells Bich Chi’s products, but it imports products through Japanese and SK collection companies.

Analysts said exports to the US are growing, but they are likely to decrease because of the weak capability of predicting the market, changes in the US market, and weak capability of Vietnamese to adapt to new circumstances and trade barriers.

Moreover, as Vietnam’s support industries have not developed well, the country has to import input materials in large quantities to make products. As a result, it will have disadvantages when global prices fluctuate.

They warned that pressure on exporters will be worse in the time to come when the Trump administration implements two executive decrees on trade. 

Vietnam has been listed among 16 countries allegedly "stealing" US wealth. The country has a trade surplus of US$32 billion with the US. 

In March 2017, 98,000 jobs were generated in non-agricultural sectors in the US, while the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low to 4.5%, according to the US Department of Labor. 

Thus, Trump will be more radical in implementing the "US first" policy to revive economic growth of 3% in the second quarter of 2017.

According to Le Sy Giang, an expert who worked at the Competition Administration Department for many years, Vietnam has been named in a trade fraud list, which will have negative impact on Vietnamese enterprises doing business with the US.

It is highly possible that the US will maintain strict monitoring over imports with rapid growth, instead of general monitoring as it did in the past. This will be applied to products such as Vietnam’s catfish.

As a result, the growth rate of farm and seafood exports could slow down in the time to come.