Impacts of the US-China Trade Tension and RCEP on Vietnam-China Trade Balance

The paper aims to analyze the trade balance between Vietnam and China and assess the impact of its key determinants, with a focus on the US-China trade war, using the autoregressive distributed lag model for quarterly data from Q1 2009 to Q4 2022. The statistical analysis shows that although Vietnam's trade balance with China shows increasing deficits, the US-China trade war has a positive impact on Vietnam as its export-import ratio with China increases in both the long and short run. We also find that the impact of participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is positive but not statistically significant. We also find evidence that several factors have a positive and significant impact on the trade balance, including Vietnam's growth rate, Vietnam's industrial production index, and China's population. On the other hand, some factors, such as the exchange rate between Chinese yuan and Vietnamese dong and the population of Vietnam, are found to have a significant negative impact. These findings can provide evidence to help Vietnamese businesses and policymakers formulate trade policies with China, especially in the current complex geopolitical context.