Vietnam's Exports to France Hits US$501.8Mln in Seven Months

Vietnam reaped over US$501.8 million from goods exports to France in the first seven months of this year, local media reported.

 

The country mainly shipped footwear, apparel, seafood products, coffee and woodwork to the European country.

 

Footwear took lead with revenue of US$126.81 million. It was followed by apparels with US$82.77 million, woodwork US$50.8 million, seafood products US$34.26 million and coffee US$32.7 million.

 

However, Vietnam still witnessed a trade deficit of US$259 million with France as it spent US$760.8 million on imports from the foreign market in the January-July.

 

Of the sum, the country continued spending the most on the imports of machinery, equipment and spare parts (US$526.4 million), modern medicines (US$74.12 million), chemicals (US$12.42 million) and cloth (US$9.5 million).

 

The two-way trade between Vietnam and France has represented a consecutive increase in recent years, hitting EUR1.4 billion (US$1.95 billion) in 2004, EUR1.5 billion (US$2.1 billion) in 2005 and EUR1.6 billion (US$2.24 billion) in 2006, an annual average increase of 10-15 per cent.

 

The Southeast Asian country’s goods exports to France obtained a faster growth against the converse trend.

 

In 2005, Vietnam’s exports to France reached a record revenue of over EUR1 billion (US$1.39 billion).

 

In term of investment, France ranks the ninth among investors in Vietnam with 187 projects capitalized at US$2.38 billion. (Vinanet)