Vietnam’s exports to Eastern Europe account for nearly three per cent of its exports. The potential not with standing, Vietnam has difficulties in exporting to Eastern Europe, including payment issues, inconsistent regulations in these countries, small size of orders, and lack of market information. Eastern Europe is Vietnam’s traditional and important market. The two sides have created solid legal frameworks for bilateral co-operation. Eastern European markets offer great potential to exporters given their relatively high GDP growth and less stringent quality requirements compared to western European countries.

The proposed EU-Vietnam free trade agreement would further boost trade between Vietnam and Eastern European countries, especially key Vietnamese exports such as seafood and vegetables, fresh and processed fruits, electronics and electronic components, textiles and footwear.

Trade between Vietnam and Russia is up 16.4 per cent from 2017 and 58 per cent from 2016. While Russian exports to Vietnam are growing faster every year, in Vietnam’s case it is slowing down. A change in Russian consumption habits and the less competitive prices of Vietnamese seafood are among the reasons. But Russian businesses want to move their garment and textile factories from China to Vietnam. Others are subcontracting Vietnamese clothing and leather shoe companies. This is a good opportunity to increase Vietnamese garment exports to Russia.