Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Vietnamese and US officials in charge of the Viet Nam-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) met in Washington D.C, on December 14 to prepare for the first meeting of the TIFA Council.

Co-chaired the meeting were Bui Huy Hung, Head of the Vietnamese Government Office’s Department for International Affairs and B. Weiser, Assistant to the US Trade Representative.

They decided on issues to be brought for discussions at the upcoming meetings, especially the meeting between the President of Viet Nam’s TIFA Council, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the President of the US ’s TIFA Council, Ambassador and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

Both sides also discussed technical matters relating to agriculture, foreign businesses’ rights for commodity distribution in Viet Nam and access to the two countries’ farm produce markets.

The Viet Nam-US TIFA, signed on June 22, 2007 during the US visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet, was regarded as the manifestation of the two countries’ successful cooperation in the past ten years, particularly the implementation of their bilateral trade agreement in the 2001-2007 period.

Through the TIFA Council, which will convene its first meeting on December 17, Viet Nam and the US will establish a close cooperation mechanism in addressing trade and investment problems that may arise between the two countries.

Two-way trade between Viet Nam and the US reached 9.7 billion USD in 2006, an eight-fold rise over 2000. The figure is expected to hit 12 billion USD this year.

By the end of 2006, the US poured 4.5 billion USD in investment into Viet Nam , standing the sixth among 75 countries and territories investing in the country.

VNA