Vietnam’s exports to China for the first five months of 2016, has gone up by 16.5 per cent year on year while imports from China fell 3.67 per cent. Vietnam mainly imports machines, equipment, mobile phones, computers, fabrics, iron and steel from China.

Vietnam expects to ship about $20 billion worth of commodities to China and spend $48 billion on imports from partners this year. Its trade deficit with China would total $28 billion, 13.6 per cent lower than last year’s $32.4 billion dollars. The contraction could be a good sign for Vietnam which has long been dependent on exported goods from China. However, China still enjoys a vast surplus in cross-border trade.

The United States continues to be Vietnam’s biggest buyer, importing $14.6 billion worth of commodities from Vietnam, up 14.9 per cent compared to the same period last year. It was followed by the European Union with $13.3 billion in imports, up 11 per cent.

Vietnam had $134 billion in trade revenue with foreign partners during the period, with an export turnover of $67.7 billion, up 6.6 per cent year on year, and an import value of $66.3 billion, down 0.9 per cent.