HANOI, Jul 09, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Vietnam's export turnover to the United States in the first five months this year went down 6.2 percent year-on-year to 4.12 billion U.S. dollars, according to the information center of Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday.

In May, the country's export turnover to this market saw a 7.1 percent decline year-on-year to 923.63 million U.S. dollars.

The decrease was attributed to the shrinking demand from this market, caused by the global economic downturn, said the center.

In this period, garment and textile topped the list of Vietnam' s export items to the United States with turnover of over 1.8 billion U.S. dollars, making up 43.89 percent of the country's total export turnover to this market.

Footwear came to the second position with 446.06 million U.S. dollars, following by seafood of 228.64 million U.S. dollars, said the center.

Other items exported to this country in this first five months include coffee, electric wire, and chemical products.

To boost export turnover in coming times, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is mapping out plant to carry out trade promotion activities in this market with concentration placed on such export items as seafood, wood products, handicraft products and mechanical products.

The two way trade between Vietnam and the United States in 2008 reached about 15.28 billion U.S. dollars, a 23.61 percent increase year-on-year, said a report of Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Of which, Vietnam exported goods to this market worth 12.61 billion U.S. dollars, up 19.6 percent year-on-year and imported 2. 67 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods, an increase of 46.6 percent year-on-year, said the report.

<<XINHUA NEWS AGENCY -- 07/10/2009>>