Vietnam will get the yes or no answer on its bid to join the World Trade Organization immediately after the next negotiation round with the US in Geneva next week, revealed the Head of Vietnam’s WTO negotiating commission Luong Van Tu to the Tien Phong (Pioneer) Daily on March 14.
“After the multilateral round of talks and the bilateral talks with the US, slated to conclude on March 25, Vietnam will get the answer by that decisive day,” Tu, who is the Deputy Trade Minister, stressed.
In case Vietnam does not wrap up WTO talks with the US by that time the country would not receive the Permanent Normal Trade Relation (PNTR), a precondition of WTO membership, as decided by the US congress and would be unable to meet the target of joining WTO this year. The US lawmaking body will not have time to review Vietnam’s proposal as it is currently of its busy running its election program.
The Vietnamese negotiator revealed the upcoming bilateral round of talks will focus on the remaining issues of agriculture subsidies, business rights, state-run enterprise concerns, delivery services and taxes.
Tu also released that the US wants to reach a whole package deal on market accession, industrial-agriculture services and multilateral-related issues (subsidies, trading rights, intellectual property rights protection, and the commercial activities of state-owned enterprises), and not a separate conclusion on each issue, Tu added.
He told Tien Phong that the Vietnamese government has met some days before to build a united agenda for the discussion.
Significantly, the daily said though Vietnam has not received a certain answer yet, the country is actively preparing for the post-WTO period. It unveiled that today the government is opening a conference themed Investment in Vietnam in the post-WTO period, in the presence of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and a number of leading Ministers in the areas of Telecommunication, Banking, and Industry. Vietnam and the US have been debating market accession in the afore mentioned areas during their negotiation process, the daily said.
In a related development, the US Vice President of US Chamber of Commerce for Asia in Washington Myron Brilliant raised his voice to support Vietnam in the country’s effort to join the WTO at a meeting with an American business group.
"Vietnam has a huge stake in becoming a member of the WTO club ... There's only a certain amount of time, maybe months or less, for these negotiations to conclude," Brilliant noted.
The US official urged that the two sides make compromises to reach a conclusion soon, otherwise Vietnam’s admission will be delayed by another year and a half.
Vietnam to date has concluded WTO talks with 24 partners. Apart from the US, Vietnam has to still negotiate with three other partners, namely Mexico, Honduras and Dominica. Trade and economic links with these three countries are limited.
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