Foreign trade

Vietnam is now a highly open economy; in 1992 the share of trade in output was 55 per cent (Irvin 1995: 732).

The state monopoly of foreign trade was eliminated in 1988, allowing the establishment of foreign trade organizations and permitting some enterprises to engage directly in foreign trade. Following a law promulgated in December 1997 most quotas were eliminated and replaced by import duties (Riedel and Comer 1997: 194).