More than 45 per cent of Vietnam’s exported timber is traded into the United States — but that could soon change, with the industry eyeing new trade corridors in 45 global markets in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
That is according to Nguyen Quoc Tri, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment, who said Hanoi is focused on “diversifying export markets,” reducing dependence on major trading partners, building the ‘Vietnamese Wood’ brand, and expanding forest environmental services and the carbon market.
It comes as Vietnam’s wood exports hit a record $18.5 billion in 2025, up 6.6 per cent year-on-year, with the US taking more than $8 billion of that total. The pressure is mounting: as Wood Central reported this week, the US Department of Commerce has slapped a preliminary 196 per cent antidumping duty on Vietnamese hardwood plywood — a rate higher than the one applied to China.
Nguyen Quoc Khanh, newly elected chairman of VIFOREST, says the reckoning is overdue. “The US is applying inconsistent tariff policies, whilst the EU market continues to struggle with economic slowdown,” he warned — stressing that unless the sector invests in green production and modern technology, the government’s US$25 billion export target by 2030 is in peril.
Japan is Vietnam’s fastest-growing major market.
Exports there surged 23 per cent in 2025 to $2.153 billion — making it Vietnam’s second-largest destination for the first time — with China close behind at $2.086 billion. The US, Japan and China together now account for 80 per cent of Vietnam’s total wood export value, with Canada quietly emerging as one of its most important new markets, particularly for bedroom furniture.
According to Phung Quoc Man, HAWA chairman, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and India have yet to impose tariffs on Vietnamese wood, a window Hanoi is now moving fast to exploit. Europe is already responding: exports to Spain jumped 63 per cent year-on-year as buyers scrambled to replace Chinese and Russian suppliers, with Germany also gaining ground under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
Underpinning the entire push is a green transition that Vietnam is further ahead on than most observers realise. The country has already sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits to the World Bank, banking $51.5 million, with a domestic carbon trading exchange now live under Decree 29/2026.
So far more than 520,000 hectares of planted forest carry FSC certification — with the government targeting one million hectares by 2030, the compliance threshold European buyers now require under the EU Deforestation Regulation before they will sign a purchase order.
