The Europe-ietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is expected to create growth momentum for Vietnam’s textile industry. The agreement is expected to be finalised this year. Once this happens, export tariff to the EU will reduce to zero from the current 7 to 17 per cent. The growth rate of garment exports from Vietnam to the EU market is predicted to reach 7 to 8 per cent per year.

In 2017, Vietnam’s textile and garment export turnover as a whole grew 10.23 per cent year-on-year. Turnover from the EU surged 6.3 per cent year-on-year. In addition, an optimistic EU economic outlook is also a positive signal for the development of the local textile and apparel industry.

The EU is the second largest import market of Vietnam’s textile and garment sector after the United States. In the case of stability in the global economy, especially in the EU, the difficulty associated with having orders similar to 2016 would not be repeated.

It would not be easy to make use of opportunities offered by the EVFTA. The garment industry in Vietnam must deal with many technical barriers for its products exported to the EU, including standards of production, packaging and labeling. The EU is known for being a fastidious market.