Vietnam and the European Union (EU) officially set up diplomatic relations in November 1990. The milestone in their bilateral relations was the signing of the framework agreement for cooperation and basic principle formation on July 17, 1995 to boost economic and trade ties between the two sides.
In parallel with political relations, the two sides attach special importance to boosting trade promotion. At present, the EU is the top trade partner of Vietnam. The two sides have granted the most favoured nation (MFN) status to each other. The EU also provides the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) status for Vietnam. The EU is Vietnam’s largest trade partner, holding 17 per cent of Vietnamese foreign trade revenues. The two-way trade turnover is on the rise year after year. The revenues in 2002 were 20 times higher than those in 1990. The bilateral revenues in 2005 reached 7.4 billion euros, compared with 6.2 billion euros in 2004, up 20 per cent against 2003. Light industrial products, farm produce and aquatic products make up more than 85 per cent of Vietnam’s export values to the EU while the country mainly imports machinery, equipment, chemicals, materials for garment, textile industry, leather, steel, iron, medicines and fertilisers.
The Vietnam-EU trade ties have developed very well, especially since January 1, 2005 when the EU lifted quotas imposed on Vietnam’s backbone garments and textiles. This means Vietnam has the similar status to other WTO members when exporting its garments and textiles to this union.
At the ASEM 2 meeting held in Hanoi in October 2004, Vietnam and the EU concluded the bilateral negotiations on Vietnam’s entry to the WTO. The EU’s total backing has enabled Vietnam to make breakthroughs in negotiations with other countries. As a full member of the WTO, Vietnam will have a new position in the global economy arena. The implementation of WTO’s rules and principles will put more pressures on Vietnam. Hence, the EU is supporting Vietnam to overcome this difficulty with several specific projects and assistances for the country to form a market economy.
The new cooperative programmes pay more attention to the depth. On September 7, 2006, the conference on implementation of the master scheme and action programme for the relation development between Vietnam and an international large partner – the European Union will be tabled to produce a new vision and bring Vietnam-EU relations to a new high until 2010 and vision to 2015.
The contents of the scheme focus on all-faceted cooperative fields, with the centre being economic and trade ties as this is the foundation to push up and ensure other development cooperation forms. Vietnam regards the EU as a top market and the country consequently will actively boost trade promotions and seek more partners in the coming time to increase the two-way trade. In the short term, Vietnam will focus on exporting farm produce, minerals, labour-intensive consumer goods (garment, footwear, aquatic products, coffee, furniture and handicraft products) to the EU. The nation will increase the percentage of products with high tech contents and gradually develop Vietnamese trademarks for exports to the EU. Meanwhile, it will import advanced technologies and receive technologies, especially IT and biotech, from the EU. The targeted two-way trade will reach US$12.5-13 billion by 2010, including US$7.5-8 billion worth of exports from Vietnam to the EU.
Thu Huyen
Vietnamese
