Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged his Ministries of Finance and Trade to publish a roadmap for tariff reductions as soon as Vietnam officially joins the World Trade Organization, state media reported.
The roadmap is based on the international commitments the country has made to its trading partners.
In bidding for WTO membership, Asia’s emerging tiger has made bilateral commitments to 26 other members to decrease the overall level of import duties by 22 per cent from current levels, which will be applied over a five-year period after Vietnam becomes a WTO member.
Accordingly, as many as 36 per cent of the 10,600 classes of import tax will be reduced following a roadmap spanning 5-7 years.
Reductions differ from sector-to-sector, ranging from a 2 per cent reduction on imported minerals to 63.2 per cent on textiles and garments.
The tariffs on imported seafood will be cut by 38.4 per cent, on leather and rubber by 21.5 per cent, and on agricultural products by 10.6 per cent.
The PM also required his ministries, local people's committees to center on improving the investment and business environment and eliminating impediments to investment growth – like burdensome taxes, red tape, and the inability of enterprises to obtain credit.
The finance ministry must also consider ways to offset the reduced revenues following the tax cuts. Together with other agencies, it must draft comprehensive plans to raise, allocate, and effectively use foreign aid.
State-owned enterprises must speed up the privatization and improve the efficiency of their operations, PM noted, adding the State Bank of Vietnam – the central bank – must guarantee sufficient availability of foreign currency to meet feedstock import needs.
ThanhNienNews, VNA
Vietnamese
