HANOI, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spent nearly 3.5 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly from January to August, declining 10.6 percent year-on-year.
Specifically, Vietnam imported 66,000 completely-built automobiles worth nearly 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, down 4.4 percent in volume, and down 14.4 percent in value, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday.
Local traders said smaller volumes of imported vehicles and slower sales in Vietnam were partly attributed to the fact that many Vietnamese buyers are waiting for vehicle prices to drop further.
According to the ASEAN Free Trade Area, tariffs on automobiles imported to Vietnam from other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been slashed from 50 percent in 2015 to 40 percent in 2016, to 30 percent in 2017, and to zero percent in 2018.
Vietnam imported 113,567 completely-built automobiles, mainly cars and trucks, totaling approximately 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, last year, posting respective declines of 9.5 percent and 21.7 percent.
Last year, Thailand was Vietnam's biggest automobile supplier with 34,336 vehicles, followed by India, South Korea and China.
