Despite Vietnam running a trade deficit with China for almost all goods, it witnessed a trade surplus of over US$600 million with China from exporting wood products each year.

For  the first half of the year, Vietnamese wood products fetched more than US$425 million from the Chinese market, ranking second among all Vietnam’s export items to China.

Participants argued that trade of wood products between Vietnam and China will be greatly affected by free trade agreements (FTAs) regulations including China-ASEAN agreements on the trade in goods and services.

To Xuan Phuc from Forest Trends said that participation in FTAs will help the government and business sector  rearrange production models of the wood industry and encourage more businesses to devise a sustainable production strategy.