Vietnam, the country of 83 million and Asia’s second most dynamic economy, has now completed an 11-year struggle to get the WTO membership after successfully closing its final negotiations with the global trade club on October 26 with approval of the significant bid documents. It is now hoping for approval of a trade bill with the US.
The Communist-ruled Vietnam given the go-ahead to officially join the WTO was marked by the hammer by Norwegian ambassador Eirik Glenne, the chairman of the working group on Vietnam’s WTO accession to approve the whole package bid documents, Vietnam ambassador to WTO in Geneva Ngo Quang Xuan said.
Vietnamese Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen and Vietnam’s WTO envoy Ngo Quang Xuan immediately hosted a courtesy party for other WTO-member countries, the world trade negotiators and other high-ranking officials.
Before this historical moment, Eirik Glenne put on table Vietnam’s WTO accession bid documents that were highly agreed by all the WTO members in terms of contents and written versions.
On this occasion, Tuyen stressed that his country and its 84 million people had taken on “extensive and far-reaching commitments” to open markets and economic reform and hoped to keep up the momentum.
The Vietnam government believes that joining the WTO is vital to the country’s chances of maintaining its rapid economic growth and achieving its dream of leaving the ranks of the world’s poorest countries by 2010, domestic analysts reiterated, noting the country needs to annually create a million new jobs for its young population and some economists are worried that the economy may not be able to deliver.
The entry documents now go before the full WTO membership at a meeting of the body’s General Council, probably on November 7.
The deal endorsed on Thursday include a 560-page list detailing Vietnamese tariffs, quotas and ceilings on agricultural subsidies, and timetables for phasing in cuts, as well as a 60-page document describing which services are being opened up by Vietnam and any conditions, including limits on foreign ownership.
Under these documents including commitments, Vietnam is scheduled to cut ceiling import tariffs for several groups of goods with detail phasing from WTO-entry moment till 2014, which range from zero to 35 per cent. These commodities namely are wine, cigarettes, instant drinks, used cars and other accessories.
The other key document is the working party’s report, describing Vietnam’s legal and institutional set up for trade, along with commitments it has made in many of these areas.
Vietnamese lawmakers who are gathering in Hanoi to discuss significant socio-economic issues are hoped to reschedule the timetable for the country’s WTO-entry bid documents. President Nguyen Minh Triet will submit his statements on these documents before the National Assembly, and it will discuss and ratify on November 28.
Vietnam applied to join the WTO in 1995 and had to negotiate with 28 bilateral partners apart from multi-lateral talks.
Vietnam's WTO membership will help raise its image on the world arena and expand the trade with WTO-member countries to $100 billion in the next 5-7 years. Currently the country's trade value is equal to a third of Thailand and two thirds of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the Ho Chi Minh City-based American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) has revealed that it is likely that the US Congress ill approve the permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status with Vietnam on November 11, noting that senior AmCham officials now have headed for Washington to meet with over 110 US senators to lobby for Vietnam’s trade bill.
“If everything goes smoothly, the US Congress is expected to approve PNTR with Vietnam on November 11” an AmCham representative has said recently.
(Sources: Local news agencies)
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