China's "strange" moves at Mong Cai border gate
With the advantage of being the largest border gate city in the North, Mong Cai regularly has over 400 businesses participating in cross-border trade activities with China.
Bank accounts opened by some Vietnamese traders who regularly do business with China in Dongxing city (Guangxi province - China) were suddenly frozen by China. In addition, some Vietnamese
Mong Cai border gate area (Quang Ninh)
Since mid-2012, trade activities with China at Mong Cai border gate (Quang Ninh) have shown unusual signs, causing import-export turnover to decrease sharply compared to the same period and previous months. The initial cause was determined to be that China has increased inspection activities on imported goods from Vietnam.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Vice Chairman of Mong Cai City People's Committee - confirmed that there have been some unusual actions recently.
With the advantage of being the largest border gate city in the North, Mong Cai regularly has over 400 enterprises participating in cross-border trade with China. On average, there are about 450 containers of imported and exported goods every day, with over 1,600 Vietnamese ships and boats participating in transporting goods mainly on the Ka Long River and Luc Lam wharf. The total import-export turnover from 2005 to 2011 reached 23,866 million USD and is always on the growth trend.
However, since the beginning of 2012, the index has decreased. In the first 7 months of the year, the total import-export turnover in the city reached 2,607,641 million USD, only 78.9% compared to the same period.
There is no updated data for August yet, but if there is, it will definitely decrease sharply compared to the previous month. The main export items are agricultural, forestry and aquatic products such as rubber, cassava starch, cigarettes, etc. Even coal minerals, the most popular and best-selling commodity, China now has no demand to buy from Vietnam.
Mong Cai Customs Branch also said that as of August 9, 2012, there were still 3,860 containers in Mong Cai, nearly half of which, with 1,314 containers, were frozen food, requiring electricity to be used for preservation in warehouses awaiting export.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh, Head of Km15 Customs Station - Dan Tien Wharf added that in the past, there were occasional periods of backlogs but they did not last long, and sooner or later they were exported. This time, almost no shipments were exported to China, the goods have been backlogged for many months and it is very difficult to know exactly when these "loads" of backlogged goods will be exported. In particular, for temporarily imported and re-exported goods, the backlog is another burden for the authorities...
Some Vietnamese businesses
More worryingly, some Vietnamese traders who regularly do business with China have opened bank accounts in Dongxing city (Guangxi province - China) for convenient transactions and payments. But since July 2012, they have been unexpectedly blocked by China. In addition, some Vietnamese
There are also unofficial sources saying that China has increased control over the border area to ensure security for the Chinese Communist Party Congress. The first phase of the "border closure" will end on August 31, 2012, but it is unclear whether the border will be "opened" or closed for the second or third phase...
Faced with the above situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Department of Industry and Trade of Quang Ninh and the People's Committee of Mong Cai city held an urgent meeting to resolve the current deadlock in import-export activities in the border area. However, there has been no important solution to improve the situation.
According to CAND-M
