Vietnam’s 8th round of WTO negotiations fruitful

Vietnam has successfully concluded its eighth round of negotiations for its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, from June 9-18.

The delegation was led by General Secretary of the National Committee on International Economic Cooperation, and Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu.

On June 15, Vietnam conducted multilateral negotiations with 19 members of the session, namely the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Cuba, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Argentina, Malaysia, China, India, Taiwan, Norway, Hong Kong, Colombia, Brazil and Morocco. They all voiced their support for Vietnam’s early accession to the world’s largest trade body, and acknowledged Vietnam’s positive changes in formulating and reforming economic policies. They praised Vietnam’s efforts in finalising documents to be sent to the WTO Secretariat for negotiations, particularly its fourth offer.

They all held that Vietnam is developing at a low level, its economy still in the transitional process with agriculture playing an important role in national development. They proposed granting some preferences for Vietnam in line with WTO regulations.

The Vietnamese delegation also conducted 20 bilateral negotiations with 17 WTO member countries, including the EU, the US, Canada, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Norway, Cuba, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, New Zealand, India, Taiwan, Chile, and Paraguay. WTO member countries suggested that Vietnam further open its market for commodities and services.

Vietnam initialed documents to mark the end of bilateral negotiations with Cuba, and near completion of bilateral negotiations with other partners.

Head of the Vietnamese delegation, Mr Tu met with the WTO Deputy General Secretary, the head of a working committee on Vietnam’s WTO accession, the head of the WTO accession agency, as well as with ambassadors and head delegates from the EU, China, Switzerland and Norway.

WTO member countries agreed to submit the working committee’s draft report on Vietnam’s WTO accession to the WTO Secretariat to be discussed at the ninth round of negotiations. According to Mr Tu, it was a good sign for Vietnam.

http://servihoo.com/channels/kinews/v3news...7&CategoryID=47

Looks like Vietnam won't be getting in Jan 2005 and many experts believe Vietnam will get in 1 or 2 years after 2005.

"Vietnam not able to join WTO by January 2005 target

Vietnam will not be able to join the World Trade Organisation on January 1, 2005 as Hanoi was aiming to do, the free-trade body said, hailing new measures from the country while also asking for improvements and clarifications.

The 63 WTO members in talks with Vietnam were much closer to an agreement than during a previous meeting last December, the Geneva-based organisation said in a statement.

The WTO negotiators supported Hanoi's aim of becoming a member as soon as possible, according to the statement.

The organisation said Vietnam had considerably improved its offers in terms of access to its goods and services markets.

"Vietnams latest offers, circulated in April, include commitments to cut tariffs to an average of about 18 percent (a four-percentage point improvement over the previous offer), and to provide some access to services in 10 sectors or 92 sub-sectors," the statement said.

Nevertheless, members of the working group said that there remained a lot of progress to be made on market access.

The organisation also sought greater clarity about certain laws and policies and urged other necessary laws to be put in place.

"I believe it is my duty to emphasize to the Vietnamese delegation the absolute need to accelerate the laws and enforcement regulations," the head of the working group, South Korean representative Seung Ho, said, adding that Vietnam's accession to the organisation depended on the implementation of such laws.

Vietnam indicated in March it aimed to join the trade body next year but experts consider that the country will not be able to join until one or two years later."

Vietnam told of setback to WTO ambition
By Amy Kazmin in Bangkok
Published: June 23 2004 22:05 | Last Updated: June 23 2004 22:05


Vietnam has been told it will not be able to meet its declared goal of joining the World Trade Organisation by January 1, 2005, a delay that could mean difficulties for the country's garment industry, an important source of employment.


Hanoi had offered the WTO a commitment to cut average tariffs to 18 per cent, down from the 22 per cent average tariff proposed in earlier negotiations, and greater access to its sensitive services market. But although they praised Hanoi's latest concessions, members of a WTO working committee have asked for more improvements and clarifications.

Frederick Burke, a lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City, said the delay came as no surprise to long-time investors, who had been sceptical about the communist government's ambitious accession target.

"They know in Hanoi that they have got to do more, but they are still trying to muster the domestic consensus," he said.

Mr Burke said Hanoi appeared particularly concerned that Chinese companies would swamp its services market if it had to give all WTO members the same access to services that the US got in their bilateral trade deal.

"The concern really seems to be China - Chinese construction companies, Chinese insurance companies, and import and distribution," he said. "Those companies would muscle in and take over whole sectors - they have economies of scale and capital backing. Vietnam is just an apple off the tree for them."

Hanoi may be delaying its accession in the hope that time will allow domestic companies to grow stronger before the onslaught of competition, Mr Burke said.

However, Tony Foster, a lawyer in Hanoi for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said the delay, if prolonged, could spell trouble for Vietnam's garment industry once the current global textile regime ends for WTO members next year.

Until Vietnam joins the WTO, its textile industry - which employs 1.2m to 2m people and has been a big source of economic growth - will be subject to quota restrictions, raising costs in comparison with rivals.

But Mr Foster said he expected Hanoi to forge ahead with the accession process. "As a general proposition they have accepted that freer trade is ultimately for the good of the economy, and that applies sooner as well as later," he said. "I assume they will just carry on pushing."


====================================================

We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Join now at the peril of our services industry. Join later at the peril of our textile industry.

They are just being bias because Vietnam is communist and defeated America in the Vietnam War.

Dude, I study commerce, I know these stuffs man.

Basically I don't think Vietnam is ready to join the WTO at the moment because our domestic industries and companies are still relatively weak. We don't operate on "economy of scale" so our competitiveness also lags behind. I'd rather have Vietnam joining in 2-3 years time than now. By then, hopefully her service sector have improved and ready for foreign competition.

However, by joining late, we will lose out in the textile sector due to the high tariffs we are imposed upon which is not present with WTO membership.

So there are advantages and disadvantages. The key is to maximise advantages and minimise disadvantages.

Who cares? If I was the Vietanamese government I would threaten not to cooperate in finding American MIA's unless they let us in the WTO.

Fu-k. Don't you understand what I said?

Yes I do, but look at all those shrimp farmers being exploited because Vietnam is regarded as a "non market" economy, now if Vietnam got into the WTO, Vietnam can dump lots of cheap products to become rich, I think we can be competitive if we start dumping cheap products.

I think Vietnam should show the U.S who's boss by threatening to not look for dead U.S MIA's unless they got into the WTO.

That sucks, but I hope it's going to be better when I came back to Saigon in 2008.

Fu-k I don't go through uni to study all those things for nothing you know. To put it plainly, would you like to dump your shrimps on someone's market and have your companies and sectors being taken over by foreigners? You give and you take, that's the principle of World Trade.

Yes I would, IT'S CALLED COMPEITITON. This would force American companies to lower thier prices and in the end the consumer benefits.

If you can't handle cheap foreign products then you should't be in the business. It's called competition.

Wow big deal if the rich fat Americans have to lower their prices a little, wow so they won't be able to afford that extra Ivory back scratcher.

Look at the poor Vietnamese who are working soooooo hard to make little money for that cheap shrimp compared to those rich fat Americans.

Would you rather see VERY RICH FAT AMERICANS AND VERY POOR VIETNAMESE?

Or more LESSER RICH AMERICANS AND BETTER OFF VIETNAMESE?

We would be doing them a favour, Obseity is huge in America and maybe they will get less money to spend on fast food and alchol all the time.

I now know why you're doing whatever science. You don't look and think about the bigger picture. You talk about the advantage but have you realised how it can also hurt Vietnam?

Taken from World Bank website:

"As an economy in transition from a planning economy to a market economy with a socialistic orientation, Vietnam has established some of the main pillars of market-economy elements. The easy parts of the reform agenda have been finalized (e.g., price liberalization, liberalization of trade, development of micro private enterprises to create employment and overcome poverty). In this way, Vietnam has reached high economic growth, could stabilize the macroeconomic balances, and gradually open up to the world.

But now, in preparing to join the WTO, the remaining positions of the reform agenda that Vietnam has tried to tackle since the beginning of the Doi Moi process—SOE reform, de-monopolizing the several state-owned General Corporations, and reforming the state-owned commercial banks—are unavoidable. The reform of public administration has been very much behind schedule. The lack of transparency, the lack of an efficient judicial system, corruption, and the abuse of power have contributed to worsening the business environment and keeping national competitiveness at low level of international ranking. China joined the WTO in 2002 and Cambodia soon follows in September 2003. These economies benefit not only from WTO membership and but also from their own reform efforts: their business environments are rapidly improving, attracting FDI, and enhancing national competitiveness. In this context, slow reform in Vietnam and the delayed membership of the WTO create more disadvantages than advantages for Vietnam.

According to the Ministry of Justice, Vietnam must revise and amend some 148 legal regulations, including laws, decree-laws, ordinances, a huge number of circulars, and decisions of the ministers and chairmen of the provinces. Transparency must be strictly observed.

The NT and MFN-principles must be implemented. A unified law for different types of enterprises regardless of their ownership must be promulgated. Similarly, a unified law of investment for both domestic and foreign investment must be passed, overcoming the dual price system and the discriminatory regulations between domestic and foreign enterprises.

Fair competition and de-monopolization must be implemented in line with the opening up of services to domestic and international companies. Preparations to join the WTO should introduce the second wave of Doi Moi in Vietnam."