Vietnam’s trade deficit with China drops  Vietnam saw a reduction in its trade deficit with China in the first quarter of 2016, raising expectations of an ongoing decline in this deficit for the whole year. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in the first quarter of this year, Vietnam’s trade deficit with China fell by 15.6% year-on-year to US$6.5 billion. During the first quarter, Vietnam gained a year-on-year growth of 8.2% to reach US$3.9 billion from exports to China due to an increase in the export of some key products, including fruit and vegetables, up by 72.8%, and telephones and their components, up by 77.1%.   Meanwhile, the nation paid US$10.4 billion for imports from China, 8% lower than in the same period last year, due to a reduction in the import of some key Chinese products, such as equipment, down by 13.1%, and telephones and their components, down by 18.4%. The positive change was expected to promote the total export value from Vietnam to China to US$18.5 billion for the whole year, higher than the US$17.14 billion recorded in 2015, according to the GSO. The total import value to Vietnam from China was also predicted to fall to US$46.5 billion for the whole year from a record high of US$49.53 billion  in 2015. Therefore, Vietnam’s trade deficit with China could drop to US$28 billion  for 2016 from the record level of US$32.29 billion in 2015, the Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper reported. The good news came in response to the early results of opening the local markets and integrating further with the global market with the signing of many free trade agreements. These agreements will help Vietnam restructure its import and export markets in the future. However, the office said imports from China still accounted for a large percentage of the total national imports, about 28% in the first two months of this year, 2.7 times higher than Vietnam’s export value to China, according to the General Department of Customs. VNA