Vietnam’s trade deficit with China surged by 82% year-on-year in the first four months of the year to US$17.63 billion, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC).

Machinery and electronic products made up a large part of Vietnam's imports from China. Photo: Kinhtedothi

In April alone, Vietnam’s imports from China rose by over US$3 billion year-on-year to nearly US$10 billion, with machinery and electronic products made up a large part with US$2.13 billion and US$1.66 billion, respectively.

During the four-month period, Vietnam imported goods worth US$33.93 billion from China, an increase of 51.6% year-on-year or US$11.5 billion.

From the total, seven groups of imported products from China recorded a value of over US$1 billion, including equipment and machinery worth US$7.46 billion; computers and electronic products (US$6.3 billion); phones and parts (US$2.97 billion); garment (US$2.68 billion); steel (US$1.83 billion); plastic products (US$1.32 billion); input materials for footwear (US$1 billion).

In return, Vietnam exported to China goods worth US$16.3 billion in the period, up 28.3% year-on-year.

The GDVC noted Vietnam’s trade turnover in the January – April period stood at US$208.25 billion, up 30.7% year-on-year, of which exports increased by 29.6% year-on-year to US$104.94 billion and imports of US$103.31 billion, up 31.8%. This resulted in a trade surplus of US$1.63 billion in four months.

In the January – April period, the US, China, EU, ASEAN and South Korea remained Vietnam’s largest five export markets.

While China remained Vietnam's largest supplier, South Korea claimed the second place by exporting US$16.64 billion worth of goods to Vietnam, up 13.9% year-on-year, followed by ASEAN countries with US$14.21 billion, up 13.8%.