The signing of the Vietnam-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in 2001 marked the start of booming trade between the two countries, which hit 35 billion USD by the end of 2014 from only 1.51 billion USD in 2001.  Twenty years since the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two nations, Vietnam is now the leading ASEAN exporter to US with a 13-fold export turnover increase while the US is the seventh largest foreign investor in Vietnam. 

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has asked the Ministry of Health to impose stricter measures to manage the import and export for food and medicines because this is directly concerned with the sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures Laos has committed to. The Lao government looks sets to benefit fromincreased trade with regional and international partners after the country secured membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2013 and shall join the Asean Economic Community (AEC) at the end of this year.

HA NOI (VNS) — Several domestic and foreign-invested cotton projects are rushing to begin operating in anticipation of competing across borders after Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) go into affect. Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that total investment of FDI in the country was US$5.49 billion for the first half of the year. Of this, the investment in the garment and textile sector was $1.12 billion.

A group of House members in a letter this week to Canada's ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doar urged Canada to allow more imports of U.S. dairy products as an outcome of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks. If Canada cannot provide more dairy market access, the letter said, it risks being left out of the Pacific Rim trade agreement now in the final stages of negotiation.

The Consul General of India in Ho Chi Minh City has recommended that Indian enterprises, apart from expanding trade with Vietnam, should seriously invest in the Southeast Asian country to make use of future trade agreements.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday asked for progress in the joint feasibility study of a China-Fiji Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Li told visiting Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama that the study of the FTA would facilitate closer two-way trade cooperation. In their talks at the Great Hall of the People, Li vowed to boost cooperation with the Pacific island country in such areas as agriculture, fishery, forestry, infrastructure and tourism.

The Obama administration isn’t happy with Canada’s reluctance to sacrifice its poultry market on the altar of membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On July 16, the Globe and Mail reported:

HA NOI (VNS) — South Korean companies will now invest in more areas in Viet Nam, ASEAN-Korea Centre General Secretary Kim Young-sun has told an investment forum in Ha Noi. The South Korean firms are eyeing sectors with high added value, including electronics and information technology, and officials from 20 large South Korean firms began a five-day trip to Viet Nam on Monday to study opportunities in these fields.

HA NOI  (VNS) — Vietnamese businesses should be well prepared emotionally and physically to tap opportunities from the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), experts said at a dialogue yesterday. Chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Cao Sy Kiem, said the 10 ASEAN countries created a production area with a market of more than 600 million consumers. ASEAN was the world's most dynamic development region and one of the top four business partners of Viet Nam, he said.

World Trade Organisation director general Roberto Azevêdo called on development partners to continue working together to close major trade finance gaps in Africa and Asia.  Speaking yesterday at the UN’s third Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, he warned that financing gaps ran into trillions of dollars posed potentially catastrophic risks to growth and development.