Ha Noi meeting seeks better use of BTA
HA NOI — Efforts to match the potential of the Viet Nam - US Bilateral Trade Agreement have been called for at a seminar in Ha Noi.
The three-day meeting titled, The BTA and Issues of Interest to the National Assembly (NA), ended last Friday.
A foreign ministry official said that representatives of many foreign businesses still complained about the lack of legal transparency and the limited protection of intellectual property rights.
The latter was a criteria used by the US for economic dealings with other countries.
"The US Trade Department annually assesses other countries’ efforts to protect intellectual property rights before deciding on extending preferential treatment," the official said.
The US constantly calls on Viet Nam to take more effective measures to fight copyright violations, especially in the software and music industries.
In the reverse direction, he said, most Vietnamese enterprises still lack the information and experience to enter the US market.
Nevertheless, Vietnamese exports to the US in 2002 rose 128 per cent to US$2.4 billion. Key exports included clothing and household goods.
The granting of the Permanent Normal Relations status to Viet Nam helped its goods enter that market as US tariffs on them plunged dramatically, on average, from around 40 per cent to 3-4 per cent.
Vietnamese enterprises also hit some snags as doing business in the US such as in the case of the tra and basa dumping lawsuit.
In all, participants at the seminar agreed that the gains, after nearly two years of the agreement, though tangible, fell short of the potential.
The meet, organised by the NA Economic and Budget Committee in conjunction with the US-backed Star-Viet Nam Project, was designed to provide more information about the trade pact for NA deputies in their coming meeting .
It also discussed the impact of the agreement on the investment environment, finance, banking, telecommunications, information technology, copyrights and customs. — VNS
