Vietnam- US relations has wittnessed significant developments especially in the areas of economics and trade after 25 years of normalization of Vietnam-US diplomatic ties (1995-2020). Compared with Vietnam’s diplomatic relations with other powers, the Vietnam-US relationship is still quite new and has its own specifics. Due to differences in ideology, disparities in economics, and conflicting strategic goals, this relationship is always interwoven between cooperation and struggle. In the spirit of“Understanding the past, cherishing the present and looking forward to the future”,the leaders of both sides have tried to overcome the differences, uphold the commons and create the favorable conditions for developing the relationship between two countries. Nowadays,the Vietnam – US comprehensive partnership is strongly developedon many fields,in which economic and trade is one of the most successful fields the bilateral cooperationand has achieved many new developments after 25 years, still considered the brightest point and becoming and driving forceVietnam – US overall relationship.
The international and domestic context has great impacts on the Vietnam – USrelations today. The world situation is changing more complicatedly and unpredictably which entails both oppotunitiesand challenges. Fierce strategic competition among major powers is increasing, especially in Asia-Pacific region; the situation of the East Sea (also known as the South China Sea), is complicated, posing a threat peace, stability, security in the region as well as the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries. Vietnam is in the process of developing, accelerating industrialization and modernization, so Vietnam needs a peaceful and stable environment, mobilizing capital resources, technology, knowledge and international supports to develop and defend the country. In this context, the two countries will try to make more efforts to promote relationship to the new height. On the one hand, to ensure the national interests of each country, on the other hand to together contribute to building regional security, creating a stable environment, cooperation and development in the future.Therefore, after 25 years of normalization of relations (1995-2020), the two countries have not stopped their efforts to improve the Vietnam-USrelationship on all aspects, in which the economic and trade sector has been playing the most important role and has made breakthrough growth as follow:
– Many important trade agreements and commitments have been signed to promote the Vietnam–US trade relationship such as: “Bilateral Trade Agreement” (BTA) in July 2000 and has officially taken effectsince march 26, 2001. This is an extremely important agreement because it has been creating a solid foundation for further promoting Vietnam–US trade relations by establishing a clear legal framework to ensure benefits for both sides. The Textile Agreement (effectivein 2003), the Aviation Agreement (effective january 2004), etc. In particular, in november 2006, Vietnam officially joined the WTO and the same year, the US government announced to grant Vietnam “Permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR). A major step in investment cooperation was the signing ceremony of the “Trade and Investment Framework Agreement” (TIFA)between Vietnam and the US on June 21, 2007. TIFA has created a foundation for the two countries for developing deeper trade and investment relations through the WTO and the BTA, and to resolve bilateral trade disputes, especially to implement commitments on the protection of intellectual property rights, expanding service market, administrative and legal transparency, thereby creating more favorable conditions for the US investors in Vietnam.
– With many trade agreements continuously signed as above, the US Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into Vietnam has also increased continuously and is considered leading investors. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, by the end of 2019, theUS ranked 11th among 130 countries and territories investing directly into Vietnam, with nearly 1,000 direct investment projects in Vietnam and the total registered capital is nearly 10 billion USD.The US has also kept Official Development Assistance (ODA) for Vietnam at a stable level of over 100 million USD/year. The USis also an investment destination for Vietnam’s businesses. In the first 5 months of 2020, this country’s ranks the second in Vietnam’s overseas investment capital, with 21.72 million USD, accounting for nearly 12%.
According to US Congressional Research Service, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the United States and Vietnam reestablishing diplomatic relations. Over the last 25 years, U.S.-Vietnam economic and trade relations have expanded rapidly. The United States was Vietnam’s 2nd largest trading partner in 2019; Vietnam was the United States’ 13th largest trading partner. Bilateral trade increased by nearly 32% in 2019, and the U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam rose to nearly $56 billion, an increase of 42% over 2018.Two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and US increased nearly 120 times from 451 million USD (1995) to 7.8 billion USD (2005), 45.1 billion USD (2015), 47.15 billion USD (2016), 50.8 billion USD (2017) and 60.3 billion USD (2018). Only in 2017, the value of Vietnamese goods exported to US accounted for more than 20% of the share of Vietnam’s exports to foreign countries. Vietnam is also the largest export market of USin Southeast Asia with rapid growth. Bilateral trade turnover in 2019 reached 77.5 billion USD. The US Business Association in Vietnam (AmChams) predicted that the two countries’ trade turnover could reach $ 80 billion by 2020.
According to statistics of Vietnam’s General Department of Customs,in the first 5 months of 2020, although the two countries have been hit hard by the covid -19 pandemic, Vietnam’s trade exchang in goods with US reached 31.11 billion USD, in which Vietnam exported toUSthe amount of goods worth 25.11 billion USD, up 10.6% over the same period last year. The main products exported from Vietnam to US market are textiles and garments; phones and accessories; computers, electronic products & components…. footwears, wooden, with a turnover of each item from $ 1 billion or more. On the contrary, US exported to Vietnam worth 6 billion USD, up 5.4% over the same period last year. The largest group of imported goods with a turnover of “billion USD” from the US market in the first quarter were computers, electronic products and components with a turnover of $ 1.92 billion, up 8.2% over the same period last year. Many American products have been continuing to grow in exports to Vietnam such as wood and wood products, animal feed and raw materials, seafood, vegetables and fruits… In the field of agricultural products, US has been exporting surplus to Vietnam such as corn, soybeans, meat, milk and fruits, with a value of about 400 million USD/year.
– In another economic and trade fields, science – technology and tourism over the years are most remarkable. …. Regarding science – technology cooperation, American and Vietnamese businesses are particularly interested in cooperation on artificial intelligence, creative start-ups, renewable energy, and infrastructure development of information technology and high quality human resource training. In term of Tourism: in 2019, the American Tourism Association voted Vietnam as one of the 10 most attractive destinations in the world. The number of American visitors to Vietnam has increased steadily every year. The US visitor market continuously ranks in the top 5 source markets in terms of the number of visitors to Vietnam, the average growth rate in the period 2014-2018 was 11.55%. In january 2020, the number of international visitors to Vietnam from America reached 96,500 arrivals, up 19.7%. For the US tourists, Vietnam is a safe, friendly destinations where is capable of holding important international political events, notably the US-North Korea Summit was successfully held in Vietnam in February 2019 attracted worldwide attention. In Vietnam, there are a lot of large American hotel management groups such as Hilton, Wyndham, JW Marriott, Best Western International, Starwood, Hyatt.
Besides the achievements, Vietnam is still facing challenges in economic and trade cooperation due to the rise of protectionism in the US. The fact that the UShas not yet recognized Vietnam as a market economy that has caused many products of Vietnam to be entangled in anti-dumping lawsuits, pressured and unable to penetrate deeper into America’s market, typically are aquatic products (shrimp, Tra fishes, catfish…), textile and garment products, leather and footwear that are the key products of Vietnam to export to foreign countries. In addition, Vietnam also often faces strict technical barriers to standards when exporting to US, mainly due to the large disparities in economics as well as science – technology potential between the two nations.
In general, the Vietnam –US strategic partnership has achieved remarkable achievements over the past 25 years (1995-2020). The bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the United States has achieved such remarkable achievements thanks to the efforts of the two governments on the foundation of the two countries’ perception of the new era of democratic and public equal values, of mutual understanding and sharing economic and spiritual benefits; of each side’s strengths in global geopolitical relations and the nation’s contribution to peace and prosperity as well as inter-state interdependence in response to global problems. Therefore, the values that the two countries have built in the past 25 years are extremely large and sustainable, and therefore need to be considered as the foundation to create new values in the future of Vietnam – US strategic partnership.
