The East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC) is one of the most important cross-border corridor initiatives in mainland Southeast Asia, but its contribution to Vietnam’s international trade remains conditional rather than automatic. This paper examines how EWEC can enhance Vietnam’s trade position and why its potential remains only partly realized. Using a conceptual and literature-based analytical review, the paper synthesizes research on economic corridors, trade facilitation, logistics, gateway development, and Vietnam’s trade strategy. It develops a Corridor-to-Trade Conversion framework to explain how physical connectivity may be translated into trade outcomes through four mechanisms: accessibility conversion, institutional conversion, gateway conversion, and territorial conversion. The analysis shows that EWEC can expand Vietnam’s market access, strengthen the gateway role of central Vietnam, and improve regional trade connectivity. However, incomplete trade facilitation, uneven logistics capability, port competition, and weak territorial embedding limit these gains. The paper argues that EWEC is more immediately relevant to trade expansion than to automatic trade upgrading. Its long-term value depends on corridor governance, logistics competence, stronger gateway functions, and more inclusive territorial development in central Vietnam.

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