WTO Entry to Affect Vietnam's Aquaculture: UNDP's Official
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) will have great impacts on the aquaculture industry of Vietnam when the country gains WTO's membership, said a senior official of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
"The biggest problem for Vietnam would be aquaculture, since it is a market with great attraction and rapid expansion," said Jonathan Pincus, Senior Country Economist of UNDP in an interview with a local online newspaper last weekend.
Vietnam has experienced the recent anti-dumping cases with the US, the official cited. Within the framework of WTO, Vietnam might still be the subject of such lawsuits, launched by the US or maybe other countries, he said.
The UNDP's expert, however, assured that Vietnam will have the access to arbitration to defense itself if the country is admitted to the WTO.
He pointed out the WTO has no effect on coffee, because it grows in developing countries, not in wealthy countries, that have a very free coffee market.
Vietnam's rice is in the same boat, the economist said. Currently, 95 per cent of the country's rice is consumed domestically and only 5 per cent is exported. "It is a huge commodity but it is not actually traded. Together with Thailand and Vietnam, the US is a top rice-exporter, but they export it only because the public does not consume it. The rice market is quite liberal," he said.
In spite of these problems, Vietnam still needs to join the WTO, the expert confirmed. "It is still better in than out, since only with the membership, can you have the right to challenge WTO decisions," he said.
The UNDP's official suggested that investment and intellectual property rights are the most important issues that Vietnam should negotiate promptly. "What Vietnam would sign, is not WTO plus but NAFTA plus," Pincus said. [NAFTA is an agreement that allows US investors to enter Mexico equal with domestic investors.]
"Under WTO, the question for an industrially developing country like Vietnam is how can you attract selected areas of FDI, and exclude what you do not want. That is the problem. I do not think that Vietnam could end up in the WTO and continue to impose performance criteria for FDI," he said.
The economist also proposed that the country lower tariffs on agricultural and industrial products. "That is unavoidable," he said, "the country will have to learn to live in a world of low tariffs".
Vietnam should not think of WTO accession as an end, but a beginning of endless negotiation, Pincus said. "After becoming a member of the club, together with other developing countries, you should start the negotiation with the developed nations."
After WTO accession, the country should also focus on industries like chemical, electronics, steel, and food processing are potential while need to attract FDI and enhance these upstream industries, he said. Textiles create jobs in the short-term, but it is not a strategic industry for the long-term.
Vietnam is striving to end negotiations on its accession to the WTO to officially join in the body before 2006.
The country has so far completed six bilateral deals with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, the European Union and Singapore. But it still has to complete talks with 21 more partners, including the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
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