Vietnam expects US exports of $7.3 bln
HANOI - Vietnam's exports to the United States are projected to reach a record $7.3 billion this year, widening a trade surplus with its former battlefield enemy, state media said Monday.
Exports to the US in the first seven months of the year jumped 45 per cent to $4.4 billion, according to Vietnamese government statistics published in the English-language Vietnam News.
Over the same period, Vietnam imported only about $538 million in US goods, according to US statistics.
Vietnam's government has projected the year's total exports to the US will reach at least $7.3 billion, up from $6.6 billion last year.
Textiles, shoes and wood products accounted for most of Vietnam's gains, despite continuing US quotas on garments from Vietnam.
Last year, Vietnam had a 5.4-billion-dollar trade surplus with the US, which has been its biggest export market since a 2001 bilateral trade agreement went into effect.
Vietnam's exports to the US have soared since Washington lifted a Cold War-era trade embargo in 1994. The year the embargo was lifted, Vietnam exported only 50 million dollars to the US, but quickly increased trade with the help of foreign-invested textile companies and domestic agriculture.
Vietnam is expected to join the World Trade Organization in the next year, increasing its exports - especially textiles, which will no longer be held back by quotas once Vietnam is in the WTO - while opening up the domestic economy to more foreign imports.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - September 17, 2006.
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