Vilsack visits Vietnam, Japan

HANOI, Vietnam — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack completed a successful trip to Vietnam and Japan.

The itinerary included visiting the Vietnam Academy of Forest Sciences.

“The U.S. Forest Service and Vietnam are collaborating in preventing illegal timber extraction and trade,” Vilsack said.

“Vietnam hosts one of the largest portfolios of forest service international programs, which also help to address climate change, reforestation, urban forestry and more.”

He also participated in roundtable discussions and visited the Foreign Trade University.

“It’s a very important and significant visit here in Vietnam,” he said. “This is the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement between Vietnam and the U.S., which started off as an agreement focused on regional issues such as security and has expanded to include economic and trade issues.

“Vietnam is our ninth-largest trade market. Some of the keys to trade are promotion and people. We had the opportunity to encourage Vietnam to look at opportunities on the trade side.”

His trip included the G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting in Japan to address food security needs.

Japan is a high-value market that imports more consumer-oriented products than any other market in Asia and will pay a premium for high-quality products, according to USDA.

U.S. exports of agricultural products to Japan exceeded $14.6 billion in 2022.