On the occasion of joining the delegation of Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh to pay an official visit to India from 11 to 14 February 2020, on the afternoon of February 13, 2020, Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung met with the two sides. Mr. Anup Wadhawan, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Industry and Trade of India, to promote bilateral trade cooperation and discuss measures to remove difficulties for Vietnam's agricultural and aquatic products for export which are facing difficulties due to an outbreak in China. .
At the opening of the meeting, the two Deputy Ministers exchanged and agreed that although Vietnam-India import-export turnover has grown positively in recent years, reaching 11.3 billion USD in 2019, it is still not commensurate with the potential. of the two countries. With the comprehensive strategic partnership and the great purchasing power of the two markets (Vietnam with nearly 100 million people, India with 1.4 billion people), the two sides still have a great deal of potential and space to increase trade turnover. Bilateral through the promotion of export of each country's strong goods to the other.
In that spirit, Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung introduced the quality, advantages and competitiveness of Vietnam's agricultural and aquatic products, fresh fruits, especially dragon fruits and basa fish (Thanh). dragon is the only fruit of Vietnam that has been licensed to import into India, India is an exporter of aquatic products and of all seafood, so far, only basa fish has been able to compete when exporting. exported to the Indian market). These products are manufactured according to the standards, with good quality and safety. However, due to an outbreak in China, the consumption of these products in Vietnam is facing difficulties. The Deputy Minister asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade of India to support the promotion and promotion of Indian businesses and consumers to know and increase the consumption of fresh agricultural and aquatic products of Vietnam, especially fruits. dragon fruit and basa fish to support Vietnamese farmers in the current difficult time.
Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung also informed Deputy Minister Anup Wadhawan about the contents of the meetings and talks between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Indian Importers and Trade Promotion Council. India and the retail chain of supermarkets on 12 February 2020. The results of the meetings and seminars show that Vietnam and India highly appreciate each other's markets and export items. In particular, Indian businesses highly appreciate the quality and taste of Vietnam's fruit products such as dragon fruit, lychee and wish to have more trade promotion activities, branding for dragon fruit in the Indian market, wishing Vietnam would soon apply for permission to import lychee into India.
Besides, Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung shared that 2020 will be the year Vietnam and India celebrate the 48th anniversary of the two countries establishing diplomatic relations. 2020 is also the year Vietnam plays the role of ASEAN Chair. Many meetings with countries in the region and the world are held in Vietnam. Many events meet and connect businesses between Vietnam and ASEAN countries as well as partners on the sidelines of the meetings. The Deputy Minister asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the two countries to coordinate the organization of many Indian business delegations to Vietnam to connect with trade to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and India and connect with businesses. Vietnam and other ASEAN businesses.
Finally, Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung mentioned the target of US $ 15 billion in turnover set by the leaders of the two countries' leaders and suggested that the two sides should make every effort to achieve this goal. One of the important measures to reach the target of 15 billion USD in trade turnover is that India needs to soon remove trade barriers on pepper, cashew (imposing import floor price) and incense of Vietnam ( import license). Because of the friendly relationship between the two countries and because of the comprehensive strategic partnership of the two sides, Vietnam has not used stronger opposition measures but has just stopped bilateral exchanges. Therefore, it is proposed that India will soon solve the problems, in order to facilitate the development of trade and economy between the two countries.
Particularly for the case of India limiting the import of incense, due to the immediate and immediate impact on businesses, the lives of many poor households, the Deputy Minister said Vietnam has done a lot of measures to ask the Indian side to remove difficulties for businesses but until now, India has only agreed to carry out the incense import and export contracts that opened L / C before August 31, 2019. Because incense businesses of the two sides have had business relations before, doing business on the basis of mutual trust and not making deposits or opening L / C in advance, Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung suggested the Indian side to implement the The contract was signed before August 31, 2019 according to the statistics sent to the Indian Embassy in Hanoi without requiring L / C or other deposit.
Deputy Minister Anup Wadhawan agreed with all opinions of Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung on increasing exports of each country's strong export items, strengthening trade promotion measures, and exchanging business delegations. , especially in 2020 – the 48th anniversary of Vietnam – India diplomatic relations and also the year Vietnam is the President of ASEAN. Besides items such as dragon fruit and basa fish, the Indian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade said that Vietnam could boost export to India many other items as well.
Regarding Vietnam's concerns about measures to impose import floor prices on pepper and cashews, the Indian Deputy Minister explained in three criteria for applying import floor price measures, Vietnam was excluded and so unaffected by this measure. Regarding incense, the Indian Deputy Minister explained that he has issued specific guidelines for the items subject to import restrictions such as incense, suggesting that Vietnam discuss with Indian importers to get direction. early processing.
At the end of the meeting, Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung handed over to India the draft Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of trade defense and suggested the competent authorities of the two countries work closely to negotiate and move forward. signing this MOU as soon as possible in 2020.
