US President George W. Bush signed the landmark bill officially normalizing trade relations with Vietnam, a growing market with about 82 million consumers, signaling a trade boom in a new era of economic opportunity and cooperation between the United States and Vietnam.
At the White House signing ceremony, Bush said the legislation will broaden US-Vietnam commerce and help boost Vietnamese living standards.
Bush expressed his belief the communist-ruled state will further accelerate political reform, and encourage greater respect for human rights and human dignity.
The White House leader reiterated it is in the interest of the United States to promote prosperity around the world, and the best way to do so is through opening markets to free and fair trade.
Bush sees trade as an engine of economic growth, and he is looking forward to continuing to work with the new Congress to open up markets for US farmers, manufacturers and service providers, provide new opportunities for people around the world, and help eliminate poverty.
Meanwhile, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Bush’s signature ushered in a new era of economic opportunity and cooperation between the United States and Vietnam.
For the ASEAN country, passage of PNTR status by the US Congress last month, and now Bush’s formal signature, along with hosting the Asia-pacific Summit, marked a new vibrant chapter in Vietnam’s history. Bush’s signing the trade bill for Vietnam means it [Vietnam] will now be treated the same as America’s other WTO trading partners, and two-way trade will proceed using lower tariffs mandated by WTO rules. The bill exempts Vietnam from the annual human rights and immigration-related reviews required for Communist countries to get trade benefits.
Senator Gordon Smith, R-OR, authored a new law granting Vietnam PNTR, which allows Oregon manufacturers, farmers, and service industries to benefit from drastically reduced tariffs on US exports, including Oregon agriculture products.
Granting PNTR to Vietnam opens this rapidly growing market to Oregon commerce, Smith said, adding Oregon cattlemen, dairy producers, and fruit and potato growers will enjoy greater access to the potential market in Vietnam.
The Vietnam trade bill is part of a sweeping tax and trade bill of must-do items for Bush, including some 20 revived tax breaks, extending trade benefits for developing countries and protecting doctors from a big Medicare payment cuts.
Earlier this month the House and Senate passed the bill in the final hours of the rancorous 109th Congress, with discussion emphasis on the fiscal stewardship of a Republican Congress that saw record budget surpluses turn into record deficits. Some Republicans held up passage because the bill’s price tag would void deficit-control measures.
Meanwhile, some human-rights groups and the US textile industry opposed granting Vietnam permanent normal trading status.
Republican budget hawks bridled at the measure’s approximately $40 billion price tag, and textile state senators objected to trade provisions benefiting Haiti.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and US grew to nearly $8 billion last year, a fivefold increase since 2001 and is expected to rise to $15 billion in 2010.
US President Bush became the second US president to visit its former enemy, in the annual Asia-Pacific summit held in Hanoi in mid-November, after former US President Bill Clinton who decided to remove embargo and normalize political relations in 1995 and then signed a bilateral trade agreement in 2001.
(Local sources)
Vietnamese
