Vietnam-US Trade, Investment to Boom after PNTR Passage

Trade and investment between Vietnam and the US is expected to expand more than ever in the coming time after the US Congress approved the trade bill last weekend in an eleven-hour session, fully normalizing trade ties with Vietnam.

 

Both Vietnam and US business leaders hailed the US Congressional vote to permanently normalize trade relations with Vietnam, the final move on a lengthy road to reconciliation between the two countries after the bitter Vietnam War 30 years ago.

 

The designation will advance trade and investment relations with Vietnam and ensure that the United States shares in the economic benefits generated by Vietnam’s imminent membership in the World Trade Organization, President George W. Bush said, commending the Congress for its bipartisan support for the request to approve the legislation, marking a significant step forward in the process of normalizing relations with Vietnam.  Meanwhile, Vietnam spokesman Le Dung emphasized that this event is of major significance for the ties between Vietnam and the United States.

 

A new investment wave in the high-tech field from the US Intel will emerge in Vietnam, home to 40 million laborers and over 80 million consumers, the former US Ambassador to Vietnam Raymond Burghardt told Labor Newspaper today, proving Vietnam is a safe destination which deserves to be invested in.

 

The ex-diplomat also foresaw US-Vietnam ties raised to a new height, of strategic partners.

 

Vietnamese exporters expressed their happiness about the PNTR passage, because the bill will create favorable conditions for Vietnamese goods to enter the US market. As for US businesses, the trade bill helps raise their trust when they run business in Vietnam, Tran Quoc Viet, vice general director of Kinh Do Confectionery Corp in the north.

 

“The passage of PNTR will create good business conditions for American enterprises,” said Hoang Van Dung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “They will benefit more from it than Vietnamese enterprises.”

 

Despite a raft of trade legislation narrowly approved by lawmakers on Friday, including normalizing trade ties with former enemy Vietnam, there is opposition to the bill from some senators fearful that the textile deal with Haiti might cost American jobs.

 

The House of Representatives voted 212 to 184 for the trade package, which is expected to go to the Senate this weekend as part of a larger tax and energy package in an 11th-hour push to close the current Republican-led Congress.

 

PNTR, the historic measure, adopted as part of a massive bill combining various tax and trade measures, ends an old, Cold War-era requirement that Washington evaluate Hanoi’s human rights record as a pre-condition for renewing normal trade relations with Vietnam each year.

 

Since the US and Vietnam signed a bilateral trade deal in late 2001, two-way trade between the two countries has risen to US$7.8 billion a year, up from US$1.2 billion in 2000. To join the WTO, Hanoi has agreed to liberalize its domestic service industries, including banking and insurance.