HANOI, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spent over 4.2 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly in the first 10 months of this year, dropping 12.8 percent year-on-year.
Specifically, Vietnam imported 77,000 completely-built automobiles worth nearly 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective year-on-year declines of 11.2 percent and 13.7 percent, according to the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade on Tuesday.
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 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area, import taxes on automobiles imported to Vietnam from other members of the 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.
