Vietnamese enterprises are yet to find a good strategy for taking advantage of free trade agreements (FTAs), an analyst from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has said.

“Preference utilization rates fell to 32.7 per cent in 2021 from 39.7 per cent in 2017,” said Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the Center for World Trade Organization and Integration, at VCCI.

A VCCI survey in 2022 shows that among enterprises that had enjoyed preferential tariffs for one shipment, 34 per cent said it was because their commodity and production process naturally satisfied FTAs’ rules of origin, not because they had proactively transformed to meet these rules of origin.

According to the survey, the statement “Unaware of FTAs’ benefits” is always among the leading reasons why businesses are still to benefit from trade deals.

Dr. Trang emphasized that advantages from FTAs, especially tariff preferences, will increase in the future.

“That would serve as an especially important support tool for Vietnamese businesses to secure competitive advantages and maintain and expand their market share in FTA markets,” she said.