Viet Nam likely to be admitted to WTO by 2005, says US Ambassador
06/16/2004 -- 18:09(GMT+7)

Washington, June 16 (VNA) - The US is optimistic that Viet Nam will become an official member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by 2005, US Ambassador to Viet Nam Raymond Burghardt has said.



Ambassador Burghardt told a Viet Nam News Agency correspondent that considerable progress has been made during Viet Nam's current round of negotiations with WTO members on its accession to the WTO.



In previous rounds, major WTO member countries, including the United States, the European Union and Japan, shared the view that Viet Nam had not yet been ready for entry into the WTO, the ambassador said.



However, he stated, Viet Nam has made strong commitments in the current negotiations which are progressing in almost all key fields.



Viet Nam has so far gone through seven rounds of negotiations and is among 25 countries currently trying to gain admission to the WTO.-Enditem


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Another great boost to motherland Vietnam. Even without the admission, the Vietnamese juggernaut is already growing quite impressively at 7.3-7.5% this year. Let's hope the target of 7.5-8% for next year will be met regardless.

Vietnam will get in. Vietnam is actually an important country in terms of economic strategy?

Why? Because of it's location? Vietnam basically borders China,Cambodia,Laos and is on the tip of the South China sea connecting many South East Asian countries.

Vietnam would make a strategy trading port. In fact it was. Before the Vietnam war, Saigon was known as the Pearl of the Orient and was actually a more used trade port than Singapore and more richer as well. It was comparable to Hong Kong.

Vietnam's labour is actually pretty expensive compared to China. Vietnam's minimum wage is higher and that poses a big problem for Vietnam. But these countries can't resist trading in Vietnam because of it's strategic location.

After the Vietnam War, Singapore replaced Saigon. But if you look at the location of Singapore, it's not as good as Saigon is. Maybe when Vietnam gets into the WTO we can restore our former glory as the "Pearl of the Orient".

wow you guys are so knowledgeable about economics etc... can you tell me more about the WTO and the benefit of being a member? im

WTO is an organizational system that lets countries know that the products they import have passed a certain standard. Countries that are in the WTO, can have their products on the global market.

Basically every country in the WTO has to follow certain rules about trade. Vietnam right now is being exploited in the shrimping business because when we dump our shrimp in the U.S at low prices, American Shrimp famers are now suing Vietnamese shrimp farmers for making the shrimp so cheap that the U.S shrimp farmers can't compete. If Vietnam is in the WTO, then the U.S cannot do that. They have to conform to WTO rules. Vietnam has lots of resources like seafood, oil, fruit.

Vietnam is the 2nd largest exporter in rice and coffee. If Vietnam gets into the WTO, they will be able to trade with even more countries with less penalities and the U.S will have to lift all their economic sanctions against Vietnam as well, due to the rules of the WTO.

oh, thanks. i did a quick search on WTO to see the philippines involvement, and i found something that said that the philippines is a founding member in WTO, is that true?

anyways, WTO sounds alot like World trade center.... u know the ones that were destoryed.. is that something related or not?