13th Round of Multilateral Negotiation on Vietnam’s WTO Membership Kicks Off

On July 19, at the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland headquarter, the 13th multi-lateral negotiation on Vietnam’s WTO membership officially kicked off. This is considered an important negotiation for preparation work for Vietnam’s WTO membership. WTO_Vietnam_024_06.jpg

The negotiation will focus on three main issues: finalise the process of Vietnam’s bilateral negotiations, compile bilateral commitments and give them to a final package of commitments, review progresses in Vietnam’s legal codification, and Vietnam will accomplish a final report on Vietnam’s WTO planning and work party so that Vietnam will be able to soon join the WTO.

A mission of governmental negotiators, led by Deputy Minister of Trade Luong Van Tu arrived in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday for the 13th round of multi-lateral negotiations.

The National Committee for International Economic Co-operation said that only 10 of the 45 member countries of an international taskforce on Viet Nam’s WTO candidacy remained interested in the upcoming negotiations. Some of the interested countries were the United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea.

Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen said a major advantage for Vietnamese negotiators entering the 13th round is that the country had finished bilateral negotiations with all 28 partners which had expressed an interest in negotiating with Viet Nam.

Source: Nhan dan Newspaper