Vietnam has reaffirmed its commitment to continuously supply the Philippines’ rice requirement amid concerns over food security due to the COVID-19 situation, the Department of Agriculture said.

Free trade agreement (FTA) generates both winners and losers, and the formation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is no exception. This column argues that tariff reduction under RCEP is likely to reduce ASEAN’s exports as it will erode trade preferences of ASEAN granted by existing FTA partners.

Việt Nam’s economic growth rate is expected to slow sharply to 4.8 per cent this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, said a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released on Thursday.

As of March 30, at border gates in Lang Son, there is still a large number of cars waiting for import-export procedures - up to 1,514 vehicles, of which about 1,200 are carrying agricultural products of Vietnam waiting for export procedures.

The National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) has asked relevant agencies to complete the dossier on the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) for submission to the NASC at its 44th session, scheduled for mid-April this year.

In the context of the COVID-19 epidemic, e-commerce is the "escape route" for industries, including wooden furniture, helping manufacturers escape the limits of space and geographical distance, and increasing their ability to reach customers. This is also the direction that Vietnam wood processing enterprises are trying to accelerate to bring products to global consumers.

Vietnamese enterprises shipped around 500 tonnes of goods, including coffee, instant noodles, sweet potato, cabbage, pineapple, watermelon, and dragon fruit, to Singapore in March, according to the Vietnamese Trade Office in Singapore.

The South Korean and U.S. governments agreed to beef up their cooperation based on the KORUS FTA with trade environments becoming increasingly volatile due to the spread of COVID-19.

With the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) occurring over two months ago, the scale of the virus has begun to take a heavy toll on many Vietnamese firms, prompting them to either scale back production and lay off staff or face bankruptcy.

The stocks under the programme are acquired and released in order to meet the domestic food security needs of India's poor and vulnerable population, and not to impede commercial trade or food security of others, the notification said.