Vietnam-US TIFA to Be Implemented Soon

The Vietnamese Prime Minister has just agreed in principle to the contents of Vietnam-US bilateral trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA), and urged to shortly implement the deal, said local media.

 

The prime minister also agreed to set up a secretariat led by a department head of the Government Office in order to enforce the agreement.

 

The Foreign Ministry was asked to inform the US side of the Vietnamese prime minister’s decisions and demand the implementation of the TIFA.

 

The TIFA was signed between Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia and Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Trade Nguyen Cam Tu on the occasion of the visit by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to the US from June 18-24.

 

TIFA is seen as a preparatory step toward the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two nations.

 

As mid-May of this year, the US has had 325 investment projects with total registered capital of $2.3 billion in Vietnam, accounting for 4.4 per cent of the total foreign direct investment project and 3.5 per cent in term of capital, and ranking eighth among 77 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Taking into account the US investment via a third country the figure will be 396 projects worth over $4.7 billion, standing at sixth position.

 

The bilateral trade is expected to rise to $15 billion in 2010 from around $9.7 billion in 2006. Vietnam mainly exports coffee, tea, footwear, crude oil, seafood, apparel, rice and furniture to the US, and imports cotton, power-generating equipment, fertilizers, optical and photo equipment, and vehicles. (Liberated Saigon, Government’s Website)