This is seen as a huge advantage for the Vietnamese shrimp sector since rivals from Thailand, Indonesia, and India still have to pay import tariff at 20 percent when shipping the products to the RoK.

General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (VASEP) Truong Dinh Hoe said the RoK agreed to give an annual import quota of 10,000 tonnes of Vietnamese shrimp at zero percent tax rate, which will be applied after the bilateral trade pact comes into effect in 2016.

He added that the quota can be raised to 15,000 tonnes in three or four years.

As a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam also benefits from the ASEAN-RoK free trade agreement which has enabled the bloc to export 5,000 tonnes of untaxed shrimp to the RoK.

According to the VASEP, the RoK is now the fifth largest shrimp importer of Vietnam after the US, Japan, the European Union and China.

Photo for illustration. (Source: dantri.com.vn)

Last year, Vietnamese shrimp made up 44 percent of the market share in the RoK, an annual rise of 41.3 percent, with a total value of USD317.8 million, surpassing China to be the second largest shrimp supplier to the RoK.

Nevertheless, in the first quarter of 2015, shrimp exports to RoK dropped by 19.5 percent over the same period last year, to USD51.33 million.

Though the trade deal presents huge opportunities, businesses remain worried about a number of issues such as the role of Government, ministries and sectors in dealing with commitment violations as well as investment capital and technical barriers./.

VNF/VNA