Japanese Parliament Passes VJEPA Effective Jun 24, 2009

The Japanese parliament has just approved the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) effective for the next 10 years beginning Jun 24 2009 to exempt 92 per cent of tariffs on bilateral trade, the government of Vietnam said.

 

Under the agreement, 86 per cent of shipments of agro, forestry and fisheries products and 97 per cent of industrial exports by Vietnam to Japan will enjoy preferential tariffs while Vietnam will cut 88 per cent of the duties imposed on Japanese commodities under the 10-year timeframe.

 

Japan will also exempt duties on Vietnamese minerals and will cut taxes on imports of shrimp and frozen cuttle fish to 1 per cent from the current 3 per cent, the government said.

 

The Southeast Asian country will slash import tariffs on LCD screens and DVD players to 3 per cent, on TV sets to 40 per cent, on digital cameras by 10 per cent and on automobile spare parts by 10 per cent-20 per cent.

 

The House of Councillors of Japan, the upper house, passed the agreement Thursday with an overwhelming vote. In late May, the House of Representatives ratified the pact.

 

Vietnam and Japan had nine rounds of negotiations on VJEPA starting in January 2007 and officially signed the agreement last September.

 

Vietnam had a trade surplus of US$297 million with Japan last year, compared with a deficit of US$108 million in 2007, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

 

By the end of 2008, Japanese companies invested 1,046 projects valued at US$17.16 billion in Vietnam, ranking third after Taiwanese and Malaysian companies. (chinhphu.vn)