Tran Dieu Oanh, commercial counselor at the Vietnam Trade Office in New Zealand.
Party General Secretary and President To Lam concluded his state visit to New Zealand on Thursday, paving the way for deeper economic ties.
On the occasion of the visit, Tran Dieu Oanh, commercial counselor at the Vietnam Trade Office in New Zealand, spoke to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about how shared Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) can drive investment and build new supply chains between the two nations.
Trade relations between Vietnam and New Zealand have grown significantly in both scale and depth over more than 50 years of diplomatic ties, according to Oanh.
Bilateral trade, which stood at just a few hundred thousand U.S. dollars in the early years of diplomatic relations, has now reached about US$1.6 billion.
The growth reflects not only an expansion in the volume of goods traded but also increasingly substantive economic ties, underpinned by political trust and the complementary strengths of the two economies.
Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Le Manh Hung holds bilateral talks with New Zealand Minister of Trade and Investment Todd McClay. Photo: Ministry of Industry and Trade
Oanh said Vietnam and New Zealand should make fuller use of their shared FTAs, notably the CPTPP, RCEP and AANZFTA, by improving the use of tariff preferences and helping businesses meet rules of origin and market requirements.
The goal is to move beyond using FTAs simply to boost exports and instead leverage them to promote investment, technology transfer and new supply chains between the two countries. Vietnam and New Zealand are targeting $3 billion in bilateral trade, with greater emphasis on quality and sustainability.
The key feature of Vietnam-New Zealand economic ties is the strong complementarity between the two economies, according to Oanh.
Their main export products do not compete directly but instead offer opportunities to complement each other.
Oanh said New Zealand's high standards also create opportunities for Vietnam to strengthen cooperation in technology, quality standards and expertise in areas such as high-tech agriculture, food processing, the green economy and innovation.
The two countries could therefore move beyond trade in goods toward value-chain integration, production, processing and technology transfer, with greater emphasis on the quality and sustainability of bilateral economic ties.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and New Zealand grew by more than 10 percent annually from 2021 to 2025. In the first six months of 2026, two-way trade reached about $845 million, up 14.6 percent year on year, with Vietnam's exports to New Zealand rising 18.8 percent to about $400 million and imports increasing 11.1 percent to about $445 million.
Vietnam's exports to New Zealand include electronics, machinery, textiles, seafood, and wood and furniture products, while New Zealand supplies Vietnam with products such as dairy, raw timber, fruit and agricultural goods.
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