Vietnam is expressing concern the ongoing trade conflict between China and the United States will cause harm to its own seafood sector, according to a statement from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) on Thursday, 8 August.
China and the U.S. are locked in an escalating trade war, with their bilateral seafood trade negatively affected by higher tariffs imposed by both sides.
VASEP said it fears Vietnam will get stuck in the middle of the conflict, with negative repercussions for its own seafood industry.
“Vietnam risks becoming a ‘transit point’ for the trading of seafood between these two markets [China and U.S.], which may hurt the prestige of Vietnam and do harm to the trading relations between Vietnam and the two giant markets,” VASEP said.
If Vietnam becomes a hub of seafood trading between the U.S. and China, VASEP said it worries seafood products from China might be incorrectly labeled as Vietnamese before being shipped to the U.S. This could harm the image of Vietnamese seafood and trigger a negative reaction from the U.S. toward Vietnamese products, VASEP warned.
As the trade war escalates, both China and the U.S. may enact further barriers to trade that could ensnarl Vietnam if it is seen as partial in the battle. For example, the U.S. could raise their inspection rates of products from Vietnam out of concerns Chinese companies could be labeling their made-in-China products as Vietnamese before exporting them to the U.S. Of special concern to VASEP are Vietnamese companies producing shrimp, tuna, squid, octopus and marine fish, which are overlapping products also exported by Chinese companies to the United States in large amounts.
And China could take a range of measures as retaliation against the U.S. that could hurt Vietnam, VASEP said, including increasing technical barriers to trade and imposing additional inspections of its own on items like lobsters. A large volume of lobsters caught in the U.S. has been reportedly labeled as product of Canada and exported to China via Vietnam, VASEP said, without providing more details.
While the dangers of the trade war are high, it also presents a few opportunities, VASEP said. Beside possible openings to boost exports, especially in the shipment of pangasius and shrimp to China and the U.S., Vietnam could also see a higher demand for services to transport goods from China to the U.S. via Vietnam or other Southeast Asian nations.
Photo courtesy of Toan Dao/SeafoodSource
