Chinese goods to enjoy tariff exemptions in Vietnam

HANOI - The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) will offer zero-percent tariff for goods from China and ASEAN into Vietnam, according to Vietnamese government's decree on Wednesday.

According to the decree on special preferential tariffs for ASEAN and Chinese products during 2016-2018 period, hundreds of goods from China and ASEAN will enjoy zero-percent import tax to Vietnam.

The goods include vegetables, fruits, processed or preserved fish and other kinds of seafood, as well as cacao and cacao products, cereal, flour and meat.

Following the commitments at ACFTA, Vietnam will abolish tax or reduce it to zero percent for 90 percent of existing tariff lines by the end of 2018, while the remaining 10 percent of tariff lines will be reduced by 2020.

Statistics by the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that in the first ten months of 2016, Vietnam had the highest import of goods from China, with total import value at 40.3 billion U.S. dollars.

ASEAN ranked third among major suppliers for Vietnamese imports with revenue of $19.1 billion.