According to information from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, its leaders have just had a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development regarding the situation of acute respiratory infections caused by the new strain of Corona virus.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that the complicated developments of the epidemic and the drastic measures to combat the epidemic such as isolating an entire city, restricting travel, restricting entry and exit, restricting crowding, stop exporting important materials for anti-epidemic needs, which have been seriously affecting many economic sectors such as transportation (the heaviest is air transport, followed by road transport). and railroad crossings), tourism, retail, stock market, courier, logistics ...

"Import and export activities inevitably have negative effects in the short and medium term (possibly from 6 to 8 months)," said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The first reason is the decline in demand (China Starbucks chain closed thousands of stores, affecting coffee consumption; McDonald’s chain closed hundreds of stores, affecting fillet consumption; restaurant, food chain is empty, leading to reduced demand for seafood ...).

The border market opens later than usual, closing until February 8, 2020, disrupting the exchange of residents while this is still an important form of exchange for some of our agricultural products, especially fruit.

In addition, Chinese buyers did not come to Vietnam as usual, so there were no new orders even though some kinds of fruit were in the season.

At the same time, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the negotiations on the official opening of agricultural markets (such as durian, passion fruit) under the charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are likely to be delayed, possibly delayed by functional delegations of China cannot come to Vietnam.

"The impact of the epidemic and anti-epidemic measures on import-export activities is relatively wide, but border trade will be most affected," said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

According to data from this Ministry, currently, import-export turnover via land border gates is about 7 billion USD, of which export by official roads is about 3.7 billion USD, exports by way of exchanging residents about 1 billion USD, mainly in agriculture and fisheries.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that there was an updated document on the situation and issued a warning to the Ministry of Agriculture, provinces and enterprises exporting agricultural and aquatic products; request the whole system of Foreign Trade Department to organize activities of searching and connecting new customers to divert agricultural and aquatic products, especially fruits; At the same time, the logistics businesses also asked to help preserve agricultural and fishery products while they waited for export.

Trade affiliates in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan have been actively working with border provinces to discuss with China about the time to reopen border markets. The ministry has also mobilized a number of shippers to shift from resident exchange to official exchange to help speed up consumption.

However, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the results obtained are not much.

This is because export in the form of exchange of residents, especially fruit exports, due to the preferential treatment of VAT when imported into China, still accounts for a large proportion despite the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s recommendation. fast and strong transition to official export during the past 2 years. With export products in the form of exchanging residents, there is only way to wait for the border market to be reopened.

In addition, shippers are reluctant to be asked to switch to official export because switching to official export means losing additional costs, not to mention other requirements for packaging and labeling. , seek an origin...

Facing this situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has made a series of recommendations such as recommending farmers to immediately adjust the production schedule because the epidemic situation is still complicated, unpredictable and likely to last.

Increasing domestic consumption through encouraging and organizing the connection of domestic distribution chains with large fruit granaries such as Binh Thuan and Long An. Calling people to join hands to support domestic farmers.

Instruct and encourage shippers to switch to export routes through eligible channels for eligible shipments; recommending the seller to pack, label, stamp the traceability to facilitate the transition to export by the official route.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade also asked the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance to join in, reviewing all taxes and fees, especially road transport charges, taxes on flight fuel ... to consider reducing taxes and fees for goods. circulation in the current period, contributing to support farmers.