CHINA replaced the United States as the main export market for Vietnam last year, showing that the world’s No. 2 economy is growing its influence in the region.

The United States was the top buyer of Vietnam-made goods for 15 years, until it was overtaken in 2017 by China, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. That shift persisted this year with Vietnam’s shipments to China jumping 33.5 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, compared with 20 percent to the United States, according to Vietnam’s statistics agency.

Vietnam has relied on the United States to counterbalance its dependence on China. But with U.S. President Donald Trump turning more inward by adopting trade protectionist policies, China is filling the gap with more trade and investment in Southeast Asia.

“The center of trade for Asia has clearly shifted to China from the United States,” said Eugenia Victorino, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore.

“Trade protectionism isn’t helping and Asian nations will realize more and more that when it comes to trade, China now punches a heavier weight,” Victorino said.

China has displaced the United States over the past decade as the top export market for many Asian economies, including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. India is one of the few countries in the region that still counts America as a bigger market for goods than China.

Vietnam’s exports to China surged about 15 times to US$50.6 billion in the decade through 2017, compared with a fourfold increase to the United States to US$46.5 billion, according to import data compiled by the IMF.

The Southeast Asian nation has emerged in recent years as a manufacturing powerhouse with economic growth above 6 percent. Its young and low-cost work force have been magnets for international investors like Samsung Electronics Co. and Nestle SA, which opened a factory in the country last year.

The World Bank forecast in April that Vietnam’s exports of goods and services will expand more than 13 percent annually from 2018 to 2020, driven by rising foreign direct investment in manufacturing.

That will help underpin growth of 6.5 percent until 2020, among the fastest in the world, according to the Washington-based lender. (SD-Agencies)