Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam had a trade deficit of more than 1billion USD with Australia last year, one year after the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) came into effect.

Of which, coal was the imported commodity with the highest value of 1.45billion USD in the first 11 months of last year, rocketing by 96.8 percent overthe previous year, accounting for 35 percent of total import turnover of goodsfrom this market.

Ore and minerals ranked second, valued at 517 million USD, accounting for 12.5 percentof the total import turnover from Australia.

Metal products ranked third in turnover, followed by wheat and iron and steelscrap.

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Australia has changed significantly a yearafter the CPTPP came into effect, said the Import-Export Department under theMinistry of Industry and Trade.

Accordingly, the trade balance has shifted from a trade surplus to a tradedeficit.

Vietnam had a trade surplus with Australia of 215 million USD in 2018.

Two-way trade reached nearly 8.1 billion USD last year.

Vietnam’s export turnover to Australia was 3.5 billion USD last year, downsharply from nearly 4 billion USD in 2018.

On the opposite side, Vietnam’s imports from Australia increased to 4.56billion USD from 3.75 billion USD in 2018./.