EU and Vietnam to start discussions on Free Trade Agreement
03/03/2010
The European Union and Vietnam have agreed to launch bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations following a meeting between new EU trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, and Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, in Hanoi at the start of March.
Mr Dung asked the EU to recognise Vietnam’s market economy status as soon as possible, and added that Vietnam and the EU needed to resolve issues related to the “unjust extension” of anti-dumping measures on imports to the EU of Vietnamese-made shoes with leather uppers.
EU and Vietnamese officials will now work together to try to agree the way forward towards the formal start of negotiations, as well as an agreed framework for the talks to reach an FTA.
Annual bilateral trade in goods between the two trading partners amounted to almost EUR 12 billion in 2008, and trade has increased 12% annually in the period between 2004 and 2008.
The EU describes Vietnam as a good example of an economy successfully opening up to trade and investment and lifting millions of people out of poverty. GDP growth averaged almost 8% during 2003–2008. Even through the global economic downturn in 2009, Vietnam recorded a growth rate of almost 5%.
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