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HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam is planning to switch completely to ethanol-blended gasoline from next year, opening up the possibility for the Southeast Asian country to import more ethanol and corn from the United States.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted a proposal to the government to switch to E10 – a blend that mixes gasoline with up to 10% of bioethanol, according to ministry documents reviewed by Reuters. It currently uses the RON95 and RON92 unleaded gasoline standards.
The switch will pave the way for the import of American ethanol and corn to Vietnam as the Southeast Asian country seeks to narrow its trade gap with the United States, its largest export market, according to one document.
“This is one of the quick and effective solutions to increase the imports of goods from the United States, reducing the surplus,” it said.
The United States recorded a trade deficit of $123 billion with Vietnam last year, one of its highest globally.
Vietnam in March cut its import tariff on ethanol to 5% from 10%. Donald Trump said last month that Vietnam could import U.S. products with zero tariffs.
Vietnam, which consumes less than 30 million tons of petroleum products per year, has also pledged to boost imports of other American products, including airplanes, LNG, crude oil and farm produce.
Vietnam’s customs data showed imports from the United States in the first seven months of this year rose 22.7% to $10.54 billion, but fuels and corn were not listed specifically among the imports.
The country currently has six ethanol plants with a combined capacity of 600,000 cubic metres a year, meeting around 40% of the demand for E10 gasoline production, one of the documents showed.
The documents also said using E10 gasoline would help reduce carbon emissions and align with the country’s net zero targets.
Vietnam pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050 at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow (COP26) in November 2021.
(Reporting by Khanh Vu; Editing by David Stanway)
