February 14, 2014

Trans-Pacific Partnership promotes Vietnam's seafood exports to Japan

The US and Japan are the leading importers of Vietnamese seafood, making up 40% of Vietnam's total seafood export value as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is currently being negotiated between 12 countries.

The US, the largest importer of Vietnam seafood, imported US$1.5 billion of Vietnamese seafood in 2013, making up 22.6% of the country's total seafood exports. Import duty imposed by the US on Vietnam seafood imported into the market is relatively low. The duty rate on live fish is 0.3% and 4.7% for processed seafood. Thus, preferences from TPP on Vietnam seafood exporters to the US are not much.

TPP, however, creates a lot of advantages to Vietnam seafood exporters to Japan because it helps reduce import duty imposed by Japan on Vietnamese seafood products imported into the market. Despite free trade agreement (FTA) signed between Vietnam and Japan, Vietnam seafood exporters to Japan are suffering higher import duties compared to other suppliers to Japan. For instance, import duty imposed on Vietnam tuna to Japan is in the range of 6.4–7.2% while the duty on tuna imported from Thailand and Philippines to the market is 0%.

Moreover, TPP will support Vietnam seafood enterprises in importing raw material for processing. In recent years, due to lack of raw fish, Vietnam seafood enterprises must import raw material from other countries. However, they face high import duty: 15% with live fish and 30% with processed seafood. With TPP, it will help Vietnam seafood exporters pay lower import duty to import raw material for processing and re-exporting.​