Vietnam Industry and Trade News Bulletin for December 25, 2025

A. POSITIVE NEWS

1. From Agriculture to High-Tech: Vietnam’s 2025 Exports Set Comprehensive Records The year 2025 is closing with special milestones for Vietnam’s economy.

• Records: Exports recorded a series of unprecedented records in both overall scale and value depth. The total import-export turnover surpassed $800 billion and is approaching the $900 billion mark in just one year.
• Shift: Results reflect a clear shift in Vietnam’s exports towards high-tech industries with large added value, integrating deeper into the global value chain.
• Pace: With an average import-export scale of nearly $3 billion per day in the first half of December, experts believe the $900 billion milestone is only a matter of time .

B. GENERAL ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS

1. ASEAN: The New Driver of Global Growth In a volatile 2025, ASEAN emerged as a global model for economic resilience.

• 2026 Outlook: Experts predict ASEAN will enter a “flatter” growth cycle but face structural challenges like public debt and high-skilled labor shortages.
• Solutions: To sustain growth, ASEAN needs to support MSMEs (60% lack capital/digital access), strengthen intra-bloc connectivity (ASEAN Business Entity initiative), and invest in climate-resilient infrastructure .

2. Removing Bottlenecks in EPR Implementation Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a meeting on the draft Decree regarding Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).

• Focus: The core issue is to remove bottlenecks so that EPR funds contributed by businesses can be disbursed promptly and effectively for recycling and waste treatment.
• Principle: Management of EPR funds must be transparent, voluntary, and not administratively burdened like the state budget. The goal is to orient production and consumption towards eco-friendly products .

3. Over 18,000 Household Businesses Switched to Tax Declaration The tax sector reported a breakthrough in 2025 with revenue from household businesses estimated at 32,840 billion VND (up 37.5%).

• Transition: Over 18,300 households voluntarily switched from flat tax to the declaration method before the mandatory deadline of January 1, 2026.
• E-commerce Tax: Revenue from e-commerce and digital platforms in 2025 reached nearly 208,800 billion VND (up 66.5%) .

4. Fishery Processing Gets Corporate Income Tax Exemption From December 15, 2025, fishery processing activities officially enjoy corporate income tax exemptions under Decree 320/2025/ND-CP.

• Scope: Income from fishing, and income from producing/processing agricultural and fishery products in difficult socio-economic areas are tax-exempt. This includes frozen products (below -18°C) and processed goods .

5. US Economy Grows Impressively The US economy grew by 4.3% in Q3/2025 (beating the 3% forecast), the highest in 2 years, driven by strong consumer spending and export recovery. However, inflation (PCE index rose to 2.8%) remains a concern for the FED .

C. ENERGY

1. Solving the Capital Thirst for EVN Vietnam Electricity (EVN) faces huge financial pressure with a need for 600,000 billion VND for investment in 2021-2025.

• Proposal: The Ministry of Finance is proposing special financial mechanisms in a new draft Decree.
• Solutions: Allowing the Prime Minister to authorize the State Bank to approve credit exceeding limits for key power projects; extending the allocation time for foreign exchange rate losses to match loan repayment periods (instead of 5 years). This aims to help EVN mobilize capital for urgent projects like the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant .

2. Nhon Trach 3 & 4: Strategic Bridge for Energy Transition With a total investment of $1.4 billion and 1,624 MW capacity, Nhon Trach 3 & 4 are the first LNG power projects in Vietnam.

• Role: They serve as a “temporary bridge” in the transition to Net Zero 2050, providing flexible base-load power to support renewable energy integration. The project helps form a complete LNG supply chain in Vietnam .

3. MoIT Works with PVOIL on Tet 2026 Fuel Supply MoIT worked with PVOIL to ensure fuel supply for year-end 2025 and Tet 2026.

• Challenges: The mandatory shift to E10 gasoline from June 1, 2026, creates challenges in calculating demand and supply sources.
• Concern: MoIT is concerned about potential “multi-price” situations at gas stations due to new cost calculation mechanisms, urging PVOIL to propose solutions to stabilize the market .

4. Thai Group PSG Enters Vietnam’s Mineral Market Thailand’s PSG Group is investing $23 million to acquire 64% of Nam Tien Co., Ltd.

• Goal: To expand into the mineral and energy supply chain in Vietnam and Laos. Nam Tien holds exclusive rights to coal from the Xekong power plant (Laos) .

5. Risk of CNG Shortage for 500 Buses in HCMC The planned suspension of CNG supply from January 1, 2026, by PV GAS D threatens to disrupt nearly 500 buses and industrial production in HCMC.

• Impact: Switching to diesel could increase costs by 30-40% and harm the environment. The National Competition Commission is reviewing the case following complaints about potential abuse of market dominance .

6. Germany to Spend 30 Billion Euro on Electricity Subsidy Germany plans to spend nearly 30 billion Euro in 2026 to subsidize electricity prices for households and industries, aiming to stabilize the economy amidst high energy costs .

D. IMPORT – EXPORT

1. Over 400 Tea Containers Stuck in Pakistan The Vietnamese tea industry faces a crisis as over 400 containers are stuck at Karachi port due to Pakistan and Afghanistan tightening borders.

• Risk: This paralyzes the main export route (40% of turnover). Businesses face cash flow freezing and goods degradation. The Tea Association has petitioned for diplomatic intervention to allow goods to be rerouted or cleared .

2. Vietnam Remains Singapore’s 10th Largest Partner In 11 months of 2025, bilateral trade reached 36 billion SGD (up 25.7%), the highest ever.

• Structure: Vietnam maintains its position as Singapore’s 10th largest partner. Key exports to Singapore include machinery and equipment (up 28.2%) .

3. Cambodia Reduces Tariffs on 6 Product Groups To boost consumption, Cambodia will reduce import tariffs on 6 groups from 2026.

• Details: Tariffs on live poultry, computers, and EV engines drop to 0%. Tariffs on EV batteries drop to 5% .

4. Conquering Middle East and Turkey Markets Exports to UAE ($5.4 billion), Saudi Arabia ($1.9 billion), and Turkey ($1.6 billion) are positive but below potential.

• Halal Key: The Halal market (expected to reach $10 trillion by 2028) is the key. Vietnam has issued national Halal standards (TCVN).
• Turkey: Seen as a gateway to the EU. Exports of rice to Turkey surged by over 1,893% .

E. DOMESTIC MARKET

1. Boosting OCOP Exports Over 60% of 5-star OCOP products have been exported to the US, EU, and Japan.

• Challenges: Small scale, lack of international standards (FDA, EU code), and weak marketing.
• Solution: Businesses need to invest in infrastructure early, standardize quality, and leverage digital trade promotion (Alibaba, Amazon) .

2. Over 50,000 Violating Products Removed from E-commerce In 2025, authorities removed over 50,000 violating products and blocked 13,000 shops on e-commerce platforms.

• Market Size: Vietnam’s e-commerce market hit $31 billion (up 25.5%).
• Focus 2026: Strengthening post-inspection, building a unified database, and using AI for market surveillance .

3. Domestic Vegetable Market: Standardization Trend The domestic market is shifting towards safe, traceable supply chains (VietGAP).

• Quang Ninh: Productivity increased, value per hectare reached 110 million VND/year.
• Policy: MARD is amending the Law on Cultivation to better manage growing area codes for both domestic and export markets .

4. Removing Bottlenecks in Rural Digital Transformation A VUSTA workshop highlighted that rural digital transformation faces hurdles in infrastructure and data connectivity.

• Direction: Shift from “technology-centric” to “resident-centric”. Digital transformation must link with OCOP and rural tourism to be sustainable .

F. TRADE REMEDIES

1. Australia Ends Investigation on Vietnamese Rebar The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) terminated the investigation into hot-rolled deformed steel bars from a Vietnamese exporter as the dumping margin was negligible (under 2%) .

2. EU Not Yet Imposing Temporary Duties on Vietnamese PET Plastic The EC decided not to impose temporary anti-dumping duties on certain PET products from Vietnam. The final conclusion is expected in July 2026 .

3. China Sues India at WTO On Dec 23, China filed a complaint at the WTO against India regarding subsidies for solar cells/modules and tariffs on mobile phones, alleging violation of trade rules .

4. US Delays Taxes on Chinese Chips (Note: The snippet text for this title actually repeats the content about EPDM rubber from the previous day’s file in the source text provided. I will reflect the title but note the content discrepancy if needed, but based on the text provided in source 726-733, it discusses EPDM rubber duties extension, identical to the previous file. However, the heading says “US delays taxes…”. I will stick to the content provided in the snippet which is about China maintaining EPDM duties). Correction based on source text analysis: The source text under the heading “Mỹ tạm hoãn áp thuế chip Trung Quốc…” actually contains text about China extending duties on EPDM rubber. I will report the EPDM content as per the text).

• China Extends Duties on EPDM Rubber: China maintains anti-dumping duties on EPDM rubber from the US, Korea, and EU for another year pending review. Duties on UK imports expired on Dec 20, 2025 .