The Vietnam-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council’s secretariat gathered in Washington from Apr 15-22 to discuss measures speed up the implementation of the Vietnam-U.S. joint statement signed in June 2008 during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to U.S., said the People newspaper.
During the eight-day meeting, the two sides exchanged views on promoting bilateral cooperation in agriculture, trade, intellectual property protection, labor and trade union.
The Southeast Asian country has proposed the U.S. to soon grant the Southeast Asian country the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) for Vietnam. If granted, it will pave the way for Vietnam to export a wide range of products in the list of 3,600 commodities that enjoy GSP at low tax rate, ranging from 0-5 per cent.
The two sides also discussed measures to facilitate trade, including information exchanges and cooperation on customs procedures
The meeting was held in preparation for the second ministerial meeting of the TIFA council scheduled to take place in Hanoi this June.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has just said that bilateral trade between Vietnam and the U.S. reached US$15.283 billion, representing an on year rise of 23.61 per cent.
Of the total sum, Vietnam exported US$12.610 billion worth of goods, up 19.6 per cent on year while the U.S. shipped US$2.673 billion to Vietnam, rising 46.6 per cent from a year ago, the DOC said.
The U.S. has invested in 428 projects in Vietnam with a combined capital of US$4,258 million, ranking 12th among 80 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment said.
The U.S. is now Vietnam’s largest export market while the ASEAN country has been listed among 30 biggest exporters to the U.S. in 2007, according to a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). (The People, VOV)
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