EU Pursuing FTA Negotiations with Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
EU is pursuing separate negotiations and ink bilateral free trade agreements with Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, a trade official of the European Commission (EC) Philippe Meyer was quoted by Vietnam Economic Times newspaper.
Mr Meyer said it will take at least 10 years to negotiate the FTA with the whole bloc of Asean and several Asean countries will launch separate negotiations with EU at the coming summit slated to be held in Thailand February 25 to 27.
FTA negotiations will be on high agenda of ASEAN-EU conference in March this year, he said.
After signing with prioritized Asean countries, EU will use them as bridges for reaching deals with the remaining nations, he added.
EU is the biggest buyer of Vietnamese goods, followed by the U.S., Japan and China, Vietnamese state media said.
In the first eight months last year, the two-way trade between Vietnam and EU was US$14.9 billion. In 2007, the figures were US$17.4 billion.
Early this year, Vietnam and EU co-held a trade forum to entice foreign investors in Vietnam. Currently, there is no statistics of FDI by European businesses in Vietnam. However, they invested US$24.5 billion by end of 2007. (Vietnam Economic Times)
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