Businesses take advantage of opportunities from FTAs

2023 is considered a pivotal and important year for the country's economy and society to achieve the goal for the period 2020-2025.

Transporting import and export goods at Gemalink deep-water port, Phu My town (Ba Ria - Vung Tau). File photo: Hong Dat/TTXVN

More than half of the year has passed with some positive changes from the business sector. However, according to experts, businesses that want to develop stably and long-term need to constantly expand new markets and increase investment to improve the quality of products, services and competitiveness of the business.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, up to this point, Vietnam has signed and implemented 19 Free Trade Agreements (FTA). Most FTAs have been effective, enhancing the position of Vietnamese goods brands in the international arena. The effective implementation of FTAs in recent times has helped expand and diversify markets, supply chains and export products, creating conditions for Vietnamese goods to participate more deeply in the global supply chain; promoting production and improving Vietnam's trade turnover with a trade surplus of 16.5 billion USD as of 7 months of this year.

According to trade experts, with the signed FTAs, the prospect of market expansion and commercialization of Vietnamese goods and products will be promoted and increased more strongly in the future.

However, according to the report and summary of opinions from many businesses, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the Center for WTO and Integration, Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said there are still many forces. Obstacles that make it difficult for domestic businesses to access tariff incentives, in other words, preventing businesses from benefiting from FTAs; which includes accessing and expanding new markets.

According to Ms. Thu Trang, first of all, it is due to the limited competitiveness of businesses, the unfavorable business environment, and the lack of specific information about commitments, application methods, and rules. origin is difficult to apply, many FTA commitments are unfavorable to businesses, and there are inadequacies in FTA implementation by some state and local management agencies; not to mention the volatile and uncertain factors of the market.

Faced with that reality, Ms. Thu Trang noted that businesses need to take immediate actions to find partners and promote transactions; Adjust production processes to meet requirements on rules of origin if appropriate, implement other requirements on documents, transportation... to enjoy incentives. Along with that, businesses that export need to carefully study commitments on preferential tariffs and preferential tariff conditions depending on each market and each FTA signed between Vietnam and partner countries. .

Sharing the same opinion as Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Mr. To Ngoc Son, Deputy Director of the Asia-Africa Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that businesses currently have many import-export opportunities; Especially when China reopens and there is still a lot of room for businesses to access markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan (China) or Japan, Korea...

With exporting, Mr. Son also acknowledged that there are still many difficulties and challenges that create pressure on the business community. Specifically, businesses have not been able to penetrate deeply and sustainably into the Chinese market, agricultural products are strictly inspected. In addition, businesses also face fierce competition with goods from neighboring countries, increased transportation costs, etc.

To actively promote businesses to explore and penetrate deeper into many markets. new market, according to Mr. To Ngoc Son, businesses need to build brands, promote products, position products in different segments, and apply advanced technology in processing, packaging, and preserving products. . At the same time, it is necessary to diversify forms of trade promotion, proactively research technical standards and barriers of markets, and ensure complete records...

Sharing business practices, Mr. Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, said that market difficulties are a huge pressure on many seafood businesses today. A series of large customers in the US and EU markets have just announced that the amount of shrimp in stock is still quite large, so businesses have almost no new orders. If anything, partners also press prices very hard. Many units, because they want to maintain production, have to accept selling at cost price, even at a loss to recoup capital and have money to repay bank debt. Even in the Chinese market, this business is having difficulty exporting fresh seafood.

Currently, along with the seafood business community, Sao Ta is continuing to maintain close contact with importers; At the same time, actively participate in trade promotion activities to expand the market. The enterprise also actively strengthens its quality management system and apparatus through activities related to international certification, as well as green economic issues, brand assurance and product promotion capabilities. Vietnamese seafood to the world market.

Similar to the shrimp industry, representatives of An Cuong Wood Joint Stock Company also recorded a sharp decline in business results up to this point compared to the same period last year. Enterprises explained that the reason for the sharp decrease in profits was due to the complicated developments of the domestic and world economic situation; Consumers are cautious in spending and sales costs increase as the company proactively expands its distribution system. However, more importantly, the wood industry is inherently quite sensitive to the macro situation in the world. As of now, inflation is taking place in major countries around the world such as the US and the EU. These are also the two main wood export markets of Vietnam.

It is also the global recession that reduces purchasing power and reduces the demand for products made from wood in Vietnam. Therefore, at the present time, difficulties are outweighing opportunities and may last until the end of 2023. Faced with this development, An Cuong Wood is actively implementing business strategies, focusing more focus more on promoting marketing and innovating production processes, towards environmentally friendly values to easily approach the standards of many export markets.

According to baotintuc.vn