Viet Nam ran a US$17.2 billion trade surplus with the U.S. in the first eight months of this year, a 20.3% rise from $14.3 billion the country earned in the same period last year, according to official figures from the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The Southeast Asian nation raked in $22.1 billion from exports to the U.S., while spending $4.9 on importing American products during the eight-month period, the GSO said.

The U.S. has remained Viet Nam’s largest export market among 200 countries and territories worldwide, a position it took over from the EU, which had held it since 2012, at the end of last year.

This photo shows Vietnamese workers making garments for export to overseas markets at Garmex Saigon JSC in 2015. Tuoi Tre

Viet Nam earned $28.5 billion from shipments to the U.S. in 2014, up 19.6% compared with 2013, according to the GSO.

Of the nearly 40 groups of exported goods shipped to the U.S., garment-textile generated the largest turnover, nearly $6.3 billion, accounting for 33.4% of the total.

Meanwhile, the U.S.’ main exports to Viet Nam were telephones and telephone parts ($842.8 million), machinery, equipment, and components ($587 million), and fabrics ($527 million).

(Source: tuoitrenews)