Socialist Republic of Vietnam

In past talks over Vietnam’s entry to the World Trade Organization this year, partners like Japan have shown their support by reducing demands for the country to open up its market, said a deputy trade minister.

“Many partners said the gap between them and Vietnam in negotiations for the country’s integration into the World Trade Organization has been narrowed,” said Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu.

At bilateral and multilateral WTO talks since early this year, partners have considerably decreased their demands for Vietnam to open up its goods and service market, Mr. Tu said.

During Vietnam’s talks with Japan in mid-March, the two countries made significant progress in closing the gap over the tariffs issue, he said. The two sides also agreed to continue their cooperation in signing an agreement for Vietnam’s accession to WTO.

Goodwill

“The move is of great importance because it reflects the goodwill and support of the countries for Vietnam as well as creates solid foundations for Vietnam to quickly wrap up bilateral negotiations,” he said

Vietnam has been flexible in making new commitments to further open up the goods and service markets in order to strengthen its determination to join WTO, Mr. Tu added.

But, many partners also support Vietnam when discussing sensitive fields because these partners are given deep insights into the difficulties and situation of the country, he said.

For example, said Mr. Tu, “regarding the agriculture field, most countries agreed to Vietnam’s proposal for a 10 per cent subsidy to local farmers after they learnt that up to 70 per cent of the country’s population lived on agriculture.”

(Source: Dau Tu - Compiled by Thanh Hang)
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 28 March, 2005, 21:20:42 (GMT+7)
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