Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) hasworked out comprehensive solutions to expand and seek more export markets forVietnam’s goods, towards fostering the country’s export, especially to membernations of the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

According to Minister of the MoIT Tran Tuan Anh, the ministry has developed andsubmitted to the Prime Minister a scheme to handle international tradedisputes, accelerate the implementation of key projects, and increase productioncapacity of sectors, with the aim of contributing to stimulating economicgrowth.

The scheme is considered as an overall action programme of the Government toimplement the CPTPP and affirm Vietnam's integration commitments to bring the mostbenefits to the national economy, localities and people.

The MoIT’s Export and Import Department said Vietnam’s export turnover to Japanand Canada - the most potential markets within the CPTPP region - has recorded astrong surge in recent times.

Vietnam’s export turnover to Japan in the first quarter of 2019 hit 4.62billion USD, up 6.68 percent year-on-year. Its main exports include textiles (nearly900 million USD), means of transport and spare parts (over 630 million USD),machinery and equipment (450 million USD), and seafood (over 306 million USD).

Notably, the export of fertilizer witnessed a sudden growth in the first quarter,reaching 8,126 tonnes worth 3.7 million USD, up 509 percent in volume and 1,158percent in value compared to the same period last year.

Other exports to Japan seeing strong growth in the first quarter includechemicals (70 percent); animal feed and raw materials (56.8 percent); ore andminerals (52 percent); iron and steel (49 percent); and plastic materials (43percent).

Economic experts said Vietnam’s exports to Japan have increased rapidly overthe past time thanks to the CPTPP agreement. Japan, for the first time, haspledged to completely eliminate import taxes for a large number of Vietnamese farmand aquaculture products.

On the other hand, with the two free trade agreements (FTAs) between Vietnamand Japan, and between ASEAN and Japan, a number of Vietnam’s aquatic exportsto Japan are also removed tariff barriers.

Along with Japan, two-way trade between Vietnam and Canada tripled from 1.14billion USD in 2010 to 3.85 billion USD in 2018, of which Vietnam enjoyed atrade surplus of 2.14 billion USD with this market.

In the first three months of 2019, Vietnam's export to Canada surged 42 percentcompared to the same period last year. Its main exports to the country were textiles,footwear, computers, electronic products and components, means of transport andspare parts, seafood, and furniture.

According to Bui Tuan Hoan from the Department of European and American marketunder the MoIT, with the population of 37 million people, along with 250,000Vietnamese Canadian people, the North American nation is a potential market forprocessed food enterprises of Vietnam.

Canada has a fairly open policy on tropical agricultural products with importtariffs of zero percent and no technical barriers, so if Vietnam can overcome challengesrelated to storage and transportation, the country will have more opportunitiesto export more fresh fruits to this market, Hoan said.

Vietnamese trade cousellor in Canada Do Thi Thu Huong said with theimplementation of the CPTPP, Canadian businesses are more and more interestedin the Vietnamese market and want to promote business and investment in areas ofinfrastructure and information technology, aviation, education, and forestry.

The MoIT said the expansion of export markets is considered a long-termstrategy to help Vietnamese enterprises deeply participate in the regionalvalue chain, and improve their production capacity and competitiveness.

To increase export turnover, Minister Anh recommended thatbusinesses pay attention to abiding by regulations on barriers  and trade conflicts that may occur, towards makingit easier for their products to penetrate into CPTPP member countries.-VNA