【By Chen Sijia, Observer Net】After Vietnam made concessions to US President Trump and reached a trade agreement with the US, the EU also tried to pressure Vietnam to allow more EU goods into the Vietnamese market. According to a Reuters report on September 24, EU officials are planning to pressure Vietnam to remove administrative barriers against EU goods, in an effort to reduce the EU's trade deficit with Vietnam.

Maros Sefcovic, the EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, is visiting Southeast Asian countries and is expected to arrive in Vietnam on the 26th local time. According to a draft of an EU meeting and information disclosed by two European officials, Sefcovic will discuss with Vietnamese officials the removal of non-tariff barriers against EU products such as food, medicines, and cars.

EU officials said that due to administrative issues, Italian apples and kiwifruit, Spanish poultry, German potatoes, and pork from multiple EU countries cannot be exported to Vietnam. Although some agricultural products have been recognized as safe by Vietnamese authorities, they still cannot enter the Vietnamese market due to delays in certificate issuance.

July 20, a freight yard in Hai Phong, Vietnam. Visual China

EU officials are working to strengthen relations with Vietnam, but they privately say that Vietnam should take more measures to meet the requirements of its trade partners, especially after Vietnam has already made trade concessions to the US.

Additionally, according to the meeting draft, EU and Vietnamese officials will also discuss Vietnam's consumption tax policy, which EU officials believe may hurt European wine exports. Vietnam will present an agenda related to rice exports, tariffs on high-carbon-emission imported products such as steel, and corporate regulatory provisions to the EU.

Reuters reported that the EU Commission and Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade have not yet responded to the relevant information.

The EU Commission previously stated that after signing a free trade agreement to cut tariffs in 2019, Vietnam became the EU's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, with bilateral trade reaching $79 billion last year. However, the EU's trade deficit with Vietnam has continued to grow, increasing nearly 20% last year to about $50 billion.

EU data shows that in the first half of this year, the EU's trade deficit with Vietnam had already reached nearly $30 billion.

Vietnam had previously made concessions to the US in exchange for a trade agreement. On July 2 local time, Trump announced that the US had reached a trade agreement with Vietnam, under which the US would impose a 20% tariff on imports from Vietnam, and Vietnam would "fully open its market" to the US.

Philip Schellekens, Chief Economist for the UNDP in the Asia-Pacific region, estimates that the US is Vietnam's largest export market. After the new 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods, Vietnam's exports to the US could decrease by one-fifth, resulting in losses of over $25 billion in exports, making Vietnam the most severely affected country in Southeast Asia.

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