Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam has been unable to gainexport growth to all CPTPP member countries, according to the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade.

A year since the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) came into effect, Vietnam hadseen strong growth in exports to some CPTPP member countries, but not all.

In 2019, export value surged by 28.2 percentyear on year to 3.86 billion USD to Canada, 26.8 percent to 2.84 billion USD toMexico, 20.5 percent to 1 billion USD to Chile and 40 percent to 350 millionUSD to Peru.

Vietnam had a slight increase at 1.1 percent inexport value to Singapore and faced export value reduction to some other CPTPPcountries, such as Australia (down 12 percent to 3.5 billion USD) and Malaysia(down 3 percent to 3.3 billion USD).

Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI), said the first impact of the CPTPP for Vietnamwas to accelerate reform in institutions, meeting requirements of the globaleconomy and trade.

However, in a VCCI survey of 8,600 localenterprises, up to 70 percent of them had little knowledge of the CPTPP.

This survey has also pointed out that 84 percentof the enterprises lacked information about the commitments in the free tradeagreement.

Meanwhile, textile, footwear, fisheries andwooden products were considered commodities that would have a lot ofopportunities to boost exports thanks to tariff rules in the agreement, but ithasn't turned out that way.

Le Tien Truong, General Director of the VietnamNational Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), said the textile and garmentindustry has not taken full advantages from the CPTPP to increase exportsbecause of issues meeting rules of origin in the agreement.

This agreement requires certification onlocal origin from yarn onward to enjoy preferential tariffs, while the domestictextile and garment industry annually imports about 99 percent of cottonand 80 percent of fabric for its production, he said.

According to the Import-Export Department, in2019, the textile and garment industry spent 13.3 billion USD on fabricimports, up 4 percent year on year, 2.4 billion USD on yarn imports and 2.6billion USD on cotton imports.

The industry achieved a total export value of 39billion USD in 2019, lower than expected.

Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of the Vietnam Textileand Apparel Association (Vitas) admitted importing input materials hasmade local producers struggle to take advantage of free trade agreements likethe CPTPP.

Giang was quoted by Dautu (Investment) newspaper as saying that the biggest challenge for thetextile industry was input materials, because it still has toimport materials for annual production.

The industry needs the Government’s help tobuild industrial clusters on production of materials for the textile andgarment industry, he said./.