Vietnam criticizes China’s border controls as ‘overkill’, dsrupting trade

Vietnam has criticized China’s zero-Covid policies as excessive after tight border controls by Guanxi provincial authorities caused a backlog of thousands of trucks and disrupted trade. Vietnam’s trade ministry urged China to take urgent measures to ease congestion at border crossings, including starting a pilot programme to allow fully vaccinated workers to alleviate manpower shortages by loading and unloading the trucks held up at Chinese border crossings. According to state-owned Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam’s trade ministry after a video call with officials from the southwestern Chinese region on Friday said, “Pandemic prevention measures that Guangxi is applying under the ‘zero Covid’ policy, such as stopping border gate operations or stopping the import of some types of fruit, are overkill.” “This disrupted the supply chain, negatively impacted the development of bilateral trade and caused great losses to businesses and people on both sides,” it said. 
The two sides agreed to stay in close communication to resolve the problem as reported in Chinese media quoting a Vietnam News Agency report. Trade between China and Vietnam, particularly overland, has been suffering after thousands of trucks were held up at the border following reports that imported Covid-19 cases had been detected in Pingxiang, a border city in Guangxi. Since then, China has stepped up its border controls with its neighbor. China is the largest trading partner with Vietnam, and the biggest market for its fruit and vegetables. Vietnamese media reports say many exporters are now forced to sell the fruit at a lower price in domestic markets as they could not export their consignment to China.