Under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) roadmap, Australia will cut 90 per cent of import tariff lines in 2018 and 100 per cent of them in 2020. Pham Tuan Anh, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Finance’s Department of International Cooperation, says this is a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to promote the export of goods to the Australian market when those import tariff lines reduce to zero per cent.

Under AANZFTA Vietnam has had many advantages in exporting agricultural products, consumer goods, textiles, footwear and wood products to Australia and are eligible for tariff preferences. Australia is a potential export market for Vietnamese goods, especially seafood as its consumption in that country has increased rapidly to some one million tonne per year.

At present, Vietnamese enterprises do not have professional knowledge of the retail system, including measures on approaching the system as well as regulations on food hygiene and safety and technical standards. They have forgotten how to introduce and advertise Vietnamese products in supermarkets. To provide the necessary information about the Australian distribution system to Vietnamese companies, the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia has introduced to local businesses the list of large retail groups in Australia with an annual revenue of AU$1 billion (US$782 million) and their basic activities to help them market their products directly to the Australian distribution chain.

It is seen that the trade value between Vietnam and Australia is increasing by an average of 5 per cent every year. The General Department of Customs mentioned that in 2017, the bilateral trade value between Vietnam and Australia reached more than 6.46 billion USD, a year-on-year growth of 22.9 per cent.