Vietnam’s trade agreements
Seventeen agreements in force — and what the European one actually costs an exporter in 2026
Vietnam has built the densest network of trade agreements in South-East Asia: seventeen in force, reaching more than sixty partner countries and, on the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s own count, over 80 % of world GDP. For a European business the network works in two directions at once, and they are worth separating. One is a market-access question: a company established in Vietnam sells into Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Canada and the European Union on preferential terms from a single production base. The other is a cost-of-supply question: what you pay to ship your own goods from Europe into Vietnam, to your subsidiary or your distributor. This note answers the second question with the rates actually in force in 2026, and sets out the first so the two are not confused.
The network
Two families, and the distinction matters when you check which rate applies: agreements Vietnam signed in its own name, and preferential access it holds through ASEAN or through a bloc. Where both cover the same partner — Japan and South Korea each appear twice — the importer chooses the more favourable, one consignment at a time, on the basis of the proof of origin presented.
| The two that concern a European supplier | In force | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| European Union — EVFTA | 1 August 2020 | The subject of this note. Duty on almost all European goods reaches zero on 1 January 2027. |
| United Kingdom — UKVFTA | 1 May 2021 | Carries the EVFTA terms over to the United Kingdom after Brexit. A British supplier uses this one, not EVFTA, and the two schedules are not identical line for line. |
| The rest of the bilateral network | In force | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Japan — VJEPA | 1 October 2009 | Runs alongside two ASEAN routes to the same market. |
| South Korea — VKFTA | 20 December 2015 | Deeper than the ASEAN–Korea agreement on several industrial lines. |
| Chile — VCFTA | 1 January 2014 | Vietnam’s first Latin American agreement. |
| Eurasian Economic Union | 5 October 2016 | Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan. |
| Israel — VIFTA | 17 November 2024 | The first with a Middle Eastern economy. |
| United Arab Emirates — CEPA | 3 February 2026 | The newest in force. Signed October 2024; ratification took fifteen months. |
| Through ASEAN, or as a bloc member | In force | Partners reached |
|---|---|---|
| ATIGA — the ASEAN market itself | 17 May 2010 | The nine other ASEAN states. |
| ACFTA — ASEAN–China | 2003–2005 | China. The 3.0 upgrade protocol was signed on 28 October 2025 and is not yet in force. |
| AKFTA — ASEAN–Korea | 2007–2009 | South Korea. |
| AJCEP — ASEAN–Japan | 1 December 2008 | Japan. |
| AIFTA — ASEAN–India | 1 January 2010 | India. The goods chapter is under review; no conclusion date. |
| AANZFTA | 1 January 2010 | Australia and New Zealand. The upgrade applies to Vietnam from 22 August 2025. |
| AHKFTA — ASEAN–Hong Kong | 12 February 2021 | Hong Kong SAR, with a separate investment agreement of the same date. |
| CPTPP | 14 January 2019 | Eleven other parties, including Canada, Mexico, Peru, Japan, Australia — and the United Kingdom, which acceded on 15 December 2024. |
| RCEP | 1 January 2022 | The ten ASEAN states with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. |
Neither the European Union nor any member state is in CPTPP or RCEP. Those two blocs govern Vietnam’s trade with the Pacific and with Asia; they have no bearing on goods moving between Vietnam and France, Germany or Italy. There is no choice to be made between EVFTA and CPTPP for European trade — only EVFTA applies. Post-Brexit the United Kingdom is the exception that creates a genuine choice: it has both UKVFTA and CPTPP.
Vietnam left the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences on 1 January 2023, precisely because EVFTA replaced it. GSP rates no longer exist for Vietnamese goods. An importer still claiming GSP is claiming a preference that was withdrawn three years ago.
How the European agreement is built
EVFTA does not open the two markets at once. Each side scheduled every tariff line into a category in Annex 2-A, and the categories run down to zero at different speeds. Vietnam freed 48.5 % of its lines on the first day — 64.5 % of what it buys from Europe by value — and reaches 91.8 % of lines on 1 January 2027 and 98.3 % on 1 January 2030. The European Union moved further and faster: 85.6 % of lines free on day one, 99.2 % from 1 January 2027.
| Category | Duty reaches zero | What is in it, on the Vietnamese side |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1 August 2020 | Free from the first day: most machinery, most chemicals, most pharmaceuticals. |
| B3 | 1 January 2023 | Beef, and a range of processed foods. |
| B5 | 1 January 2025 | Dairy, the remainder of the machinery lines. |
| B7 | 1 January 2027 | The large step still to come: wine, spirits, cosmetics, auto parts, large motorcycles, frozen pork. |
| B9 | 1 January 2029 | Cars above 3,000 cm³ petrol or 2,500 cm³ diesel; fresh pork. |
| B10 | 1 January 2030 | All other passenger cars; poultry; small motorcycles; beer. |
| Quota | never fully | Eggs, sugar, salt, tobacco. Zero inside a fixed volume, full duty above it — on Vietnam’s existing WTO volumes, which EVFTA did not enlarge. |
| Excluded | — | No commitment at all. Vehicles imported in kit form are the case a European manufacturer meets. |
After the first reduction on 1 August 2020, every subsequent step takes effect on 1 January of the following year, in equal annual instalments, with interim rates rounded down to the nearest tenth of a point. A consignment cleared on 28 December pays this year’s duty; the same consignment cleared on 3 January pays next year’s. On a container of wine at the 2026 rate that difference is worth several thousand euros, and it is the one piece of tariff planning that costs nothing to do.
What European goods pay entering Vietnam, in 2026
These are read off the Vietnamese schedule in force for 2026, line by line. Duty is set per eight-digit code and not per family: the lines below are representative of their chapter and are not a substitute for checking your own code.
| Already free of duty | HS | Ordinary duty | Free since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric motors, 1 to 37.5 kW | 8501.52 | 10 % | 1 August 2020 |
| Air-conditioning machines | 8415.10 | 20 % | 1 January 2025 |
| Beef, frozen and boneless | 0202.30 | 14 % | 1 January 2023 |
| Milk powder, bulk packing | 0402.21 | 2 % | 1 January 2025 |
| Still dutiable in 2026 | HS | Ordinary | EVFTA 2026 | Free from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor-vehicle parts | 8708.99 | 15 % | 1.8 % | 1 Jan 2027 |
| Pork, frozen | 0203.29 | 10 % | 1.8 % | 1 Jan 2027 |
| Perfumes and toilet waters | 3303.00 | 18 % | 2.2 % | 1 Jan 2027 |
| Spirits — vodka, brandy | 2208 | 45 % | 6.0 % | 1 Jan 2027 |
| Wine, over 23 % vol., bottled | 2204.21 | 50 % | 6.2 % | 1 Jan 2027 |
| Motorcycles over 800 cm³ | 8711.50 | 40 % | 6.8 % | 1 Jan 2027 |
| Chicken, frozen cuts | 0207.14 | 20 % | 7.2 % | 1 Jan 2030 |
| Cars above 3,000 cm³ | 8703.24 | 45 % | 20.4 % | 1 Jan 2029 |
| Cars, estate and sports | 8703.80 | 70 % | 28.3 % | 1 Jan 2030 |
Almost everything European reaches zero on 1 January 2027. Passenger cars do not: the large engines run to 2029 and the rest to 2030, so a European car sold in Vietnam today still carries between a fifth and a third of its customs value in duty. Vehicles imported CKD, in kit form for local assembly, carry no EVFTA commitment at all and pay the ordinary rate indefinitely — the opposite of the assumption a manufacturer usually brings to a local-assembly project.
And duty is only the first of three charges. Special sales tax and value added tax are calculated on a base that includes the duty, so a fall in the tariff is amplified through the stack. That is worth modelling before 1 January 2027 rather than after.
The other direction — Vietnamese goods entering the European Union
This is the side that matters if you are establishing production in Vietnam. The European schedule is shorter and it ends on 1 January 2027, when 99.2 % of lines are free. What remains after that date is not a tariff at all but a set of quotas.
| Sector | Position in the European schedule |
|---|---|
| Furniture | All 77 tariff lines free since 1 August 2020. The cleanest chapter in the agreement. |
| Electronics | 450 of 500 lines free from the first day. Note that phones and laptops were already at zero worldwide under the WTO information technology agreement — EVFTA adds less here than the headline suggests. |
| Coffee | Free from the first day. The real gain is on roasted coffee and extracts, not on green beans. |
| Knitted garments (ch. 61) | 91 of 147 lines free at entry, the rest by 1 January 2025. Complete. |
| Woven garments (ch. 62) | 56 of 194 lines free at entry; 44 lines still stepping down and free on 1 January 2027. |
| Footwear | 37 of 86 lines free at entry — 42 % of the trade by value — rising to 73 % after three years and 100 % on 1 January 2027. |
| Seafood | 220 of 425 lines free at entry; 19 lines run to 1 January 2027. Steamed tuna loin fell from 24 % over seven years; frozen tuna loin from 18 % over three, and is already free. |
| Rice — quota | 80,000 tonnes a year at zero duty: 30,000 milled, 20,000 husked, 30,000 fragrant across nine named varieties. Broken rice is not capped. The quota has been filled in recent years. |
| Tuna, canned — quota | 11,500 tonnes a year at zero duty. |
| Other quotas | Eggs, garlic, sweetcorn, cassava starch, surimi, sugar and high-sugar products, mushrooms, ethanol, modified starches. Each is a fixed annual volume; beyond it the ordinary duty returns. |
Claiming the preference — where it is actually lost
The rate does not apply because the goods come from Europe. It applies because origin is established under the agreement’s own rules and proved in the form the agreement requires. Both halves fail regularly, and for different reasons.
| Point | What the agreement requires |
|---|---|
| Origin | Either wholly obtained, or sufficiently worked under the product-specific rule for that code — a change of tariff heading, a ceiling on non-originating materials, or a named process. Repackaging, labelling and simple assembly confer nothing. |
| Textiles | Fabric-forward: the fabric itself must originate, and the garment be cut and made up. Cutting and sewing imported fabric is not enough. Fabric from South Korea has counted as originating since 23 December 2020 — the one cumulation that is actually live and widely under-used. |
| Seafood cumulation | The agreement provides for squid and octopus from ASEAN states holding an EU agreement. Vietnam confirmed it would not apply this cumulation, and the Commission’s guidance still records it as not applicable. Do not build a supply chain on it. |
| Proof, from Europe | A statement on origin made out by an exporter registered in REX, on the invoice or another commercial document. Below €6,000 per consignment any exporter may make it out without registering. |
| Proof, from Vietnam | A EUR.1 certificate issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Vietnam has no REX-equivalent above the €6,000 threshold: the paper certificate is still required. |
| Timing | Valid twelve months. The European Union accepts a retrospective claim after clearance; Vietnam does not — the proof is produced on import, with a short grace period if it is not to hand. This asymmetry catches European groups that assume their home practice travels. |
| Transport | Not a strict direct-transport rule but a non-alteration rule: storage and splitting in a third country are allowed under customs supervision, and labels may be added. Keep the transport documents that prove it. |
What EVFTA carries besides tariffs
Three of these change what a European company may do in Vietnam, rather than what it pays.
| Chapter | Substance |
|---|---|
| Services and investment | Commitments beyond Vietnam’s WTO schedule: the whole of computer services; up to 49 % foreign ownership for two named European banks in certain joint-stock banks; wholly foreign-owned value-added telecommunications; environmental and maritime services; and the abolition, after five years, of the economic needs test on additional retail outlets. |
| Public procurement | Opens 21 central bodies, the city authorities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Electricity of Vietnam, Vietnam Railways, two universities, two research institutes and 34 public hospitals. Pharmaceutical procurement carries its own long domestic set-aside, falling from 100 % to 50 % over sixteen years. |
| Geographical indications | 169 European names protected in Vietnam — Champagne, Roquefort, Parmigiano Reggiano, Rioja among them — and 39 Vietnamese names in Europe, including Phú Quốc fish sauce and Buôn Ma Thuột coffee. |
EVFTA was signed on 30 June 2019 alongside EVIPA, a separate investment protection agreement with its own standing tribunal in place of ad hoc arbitration. EVFTA needed only European and Vietnamese institutional approval and entered into force in 2020. EVIPA needs ratification by each of the twenty-seven member states. Twenty had ratified by the end of 2025; the French bill was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 27 July 2026 and sent to Parliament.
Until the last ratification, a European investor in Vietnam is protected by the older bilateral investment treaties — where one exists between that member state and Vietnam — and not by EVIPA. It is a question worth settling before the structure is fixed, because the answer differs by member state and the treaty may sit better with a holding company in one jurisdiction than another.
Two European rules that apply whatever the tariff
Zero duty is not free entry. Since 1 January 2026 the carbon border adjustment mechanism is in its definitive phase, and customs now check the importer’s authorisation before goods are released; iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, hydrogen and electricity are covered, with a de minimis of 50 tonnes a year. And from 30 December 2026 — four months from the date of this note — the deforestation regulation binds large and medium operators, with smaller ones following on 30 June 2027; it reaches coffee, rubber, wood and their derivatives, all substantial Vietnamese exports, and requires geolocation evidence that the land was not cleared after 31 December 2020. An EVFTA-eligible shipment at zero duty can still be stopped at the European border by either of these.
What we check on a file
We establish the eight-digit code before anything else, because the whole calculation hangs on it and a chapter-level assumption is not a rate. We read the 2026 column of the Vietnamese schedule for that code rather than the headline of the agreement, and we say which step falls on 1 January 2027, since that is often the argument for phasing an investment rather than accelerating it. Where both a bilateral and an ASEAN route reach the same market, we compare them consignment by consignment instead of standardising on one. We check that the origin rule can actually be met by the intended manufacturing process, before the process is fixed. And we set out duty, special sales tax and value added tax as one stack, because the tariff is the smallest of the three on most consumer goods and the only one that is falling.