The US will be the key trading partner of Vietnam with two-way trade volume expected to reach US$15 billion in 2010, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized in his speech to American business leaders on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific summit.
PM Dung emphasized that in its relations with US, Vietnam has a consistent policy: a desire to look forward to a future of mutual cooperation, development and prosperity of the two countries.
Vietnam has pledged to create more favorable conditions for US investors to invest into and effectively carry out business in Vietnam, Dung noted.
On this occasion, the Vietnamese leader also expressed strong disappointment at the US Congress’s failure to approve permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) ahead of George W. Bush’s visit, but said that the measure would eventually be passed and future cooperation looked bright.
If the trade bill is not passed by the time Vietnam enters the WTO, US companies will not be able to take advantage of Vietnam’s promised opening of service markets in banking, insurance and telecommunications, he stressed.
Although Dung didn’t elaborate a fact that most of the trade growth will likely come from increased Vietnamese exports to the US, which is expected to widen an already lopsided trade deficit for the US.
The US trade deficit with Vietnam has sparked some worries that the booming Southeast Asian country will become a mini-China, gobbling up market share in the US and siphoning away manufacturing jobs.
Such worries are one reason for the embarrassing defeat of the bill on Monday in US House with a 228-116 vote, short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it without debate, to establish PNTR with Vietnam, a measure strongly backed by Bush.
Immediately on Wednesday, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab downplayed the defeat, saying that under normal passage rules the measure would easily be approved and would be reintroduced in early December.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and US last year stood at US$7.8 billion, including US$6.6 billion worth of Vietnamese exports stateside, the country's largest export market.
Just five years ago, Vietnam exported only about US$1 billion in goods to the US, but trade exploded after the two countries signed a bilateral trade agreement in 2001 and Vietnamese exports are expected to soar even higher after the country joins the World Trade Organization.
Vietnam, on the other hand, would be denied WTO benefits in the US market, which would still be governed by a 2001 bilateral trade agreement.
Terms of that agreement would still lift quotas on garments, Vietnam’s largest non-oil export, because terms of the previous agreement called for quotas to be lifted immediately on Vietnam's WTO entry.
Still, Vietnam may face “anti-dumping” tariffs similar to import taxes slapped on exports of catfish and shrimp to the US and leather shoes in Europe. As a “non-market economy” for the next 12 years despite its WTO membership, Vietnam would have little recourse to fight those kinds of duties.
(People, Bangkokpost)
Vietnamese
