Vietnam will begin cutting over one third of total 10,600 tariffs in the new year 2007, mainly those with current tax rates over 20 per cent, the WTO negotiation mission told a meeting in Hanoi Monday.
At the meeting, held to apprise businesses on the country’s commitments under the WTO, Nguyen Thi Bich Hang, head of the finance ministry’s Cooperation Department, said consumer products will be entitled to the deepest and quickest tariff cuts, benefiting Vietnamese consumers greatly.
The deepest reductions would be applied to textile and garment, fish and fisheries products, timber and paper, and machinery and electronic products.
However certain protections will still be maintained for some major products, including farm produce, cement, steel, construction materials, automobiles, and motorbikes.
The country will also maintain import tariffs on four essential commodities of sugar, eggs, tobacco, and salt.
The tax on poultry eggs currently stands at 40 per cent, sugar 25 per cent, refined sugar 40-50 per cent, tobacco 30 per cent, and salt 30 per cent.
In addition, the country pledged to abolish agricultural export subsidies.
The global body trade gave Vietnam a two-year time frame to revise the luxury tariffs on alcohol and beer.
The country will also gradually lower tax on all items to an average of 13.4 per cent from the current 17.4 per cent within 5-7 years.
Besides, when Vietnam signed free trade agreements like the CEPT/AFTA (Common Effective Preferential Tariff/ASEAN Free Trade Area) and ASEAN’s agreements with China and the Republic of Korea, the country will have to liberalize tariffs and remove import tariffs on goods from those countries.
Nevertheless, the time duration and the levels of tariff reduction on “sensitive goods” were flexible, Hang told the entrepreneurs.
The National Assembly approved Vietnam’s WTO accession agreement on Tuesday. Thanhniennews
Vietnamese
