Vietnamese Exports to the United States Grow at Fastest Rate

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Mar. 20 – Vietnamese exports to the United States grew at the fastest rate among the leading 50 American sources of foreign goods in January, along with Bangladesh, Denmark, Ireland and New Zealand.

This suggests that Vietnam's focus on lower-end manufactured goods and basic agricultural commodities is still profitable despite the slowing world demand.

The U.S. International Trade Commission figures show that Vietnam exports to the United States grew by 14 percent to US$1.15 billion, making it the 22nd top exporters to the the country from its previous ranking of 30th last year.

“It is certainly encouraging,” Ayumi Konishi, the Vietnam country director for the Asian Development Bank told Thanh Nien News. “Given the composition of Vietnamese exports to the US compared with Asian countries where electronics occupy so much of the total, we did not expect as steep a drop for Vietnam as for others, but an increase is almost too good to be true.”

In total, Vietnamese exports dropped by 5 percent during the two months of the year. Vietnam mainly supplies the United States with various consumer products, including shoes, clothing, furniture, coffee and seafood. Apparel shipments to the United States in January increased by 15 percent to US$462 million while footwear exports rose by 38 percent US$147 million and furniture shipments grew by 2 percent to US$133 million.