EU faces Vietnam rights test over $57.9 bn trade gap

Vietnamese President To Lam began a Brussels visit Wednesday as EU-Vietnam goods trade reached €76 billion in 2025, Deutsche Welle reported on Thursday.

The DW article said the EU ran a €51.7 billion ($57.9 billion) goods deficit with Vietnam in 2025, compared with roughly €24 billion in 2019, sharpening questions over access and leverage.

The trip followed Vietnam’s Oct. 18 free-trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association, made up of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement took effect in August 2020 and expanded commerce between Vietnam and most European states.

Amid global tariff disputes, Khac Giang Nguyen, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told DW the relationship “is a welcome advertisement for keeping markets open.”

“This is a win-win for both sides,” Nguyen said. “Vietnam offers Europe an established manufacturing base and another foothold in Asian supply chains. Europe offers Vietnam capital, technology and a large market, helping Hanoi reduce its exposure to American demand and Chinese industrial inputs.”

Vietnam is the EU’s largest goods-trading partner in Southeast Asia and ranks 14th globally, according to the DW article. The EU is Vietnam’s fourth-largest trading partner and a major source of foreign investment.

The relationship now extends beyond commerce. The EU and Vietnam upgraded ties in January to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the first such arrangement between the bloc and a Southeast Asian country, DW reported. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas met Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung on Wednesday to discuss security cooperation, including in the South China Sea, where Vietnam has territorial disputes with China.

The deeper relationship has drawn scrutiny from human rights organizations. In an open letter sent this week to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, 12 international groups raised “grave concerns over the Vietnamese government's intensifying repression” and urged EU leaders to press for reforms.

When the EVFTA and related political agreements were negotiated, Vietnam accepted commitments on human rights, labour protections and environmental standards, according to the DW article. Those included reforms to allow independent worker organizations and closer alignment with International Labour Organization standards. Rights groups say Vietnam has not ratified the ILO convention on freedom of association and that independent trade unions remain banned.

“The EU has taken no action in response to Vietnam's repeated breaches of its EVFTA-related obligations and pledges; instead, in January it upgraded bilateral relations,” the joint letter read.

European trade rules are also becoming harder for Vietnamese exporters to meet. DW cited the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a system that prices carbon embedded in some imports, and deforestation regulations requiring more supply-chain information from affected sectors.

“It is quite clear that the EVFTA's benefits have been distributed unevenly across sectors, firms, and social groups, while political, regulatory, and economic challenges may complicate the next phase of the relationship,” Hai Thiem Bui, a researcher at the Stockholm Center for Global Asia at Stockholm University, told DW.