EU, Vietnam Leaders Push For Early FTA Conclusion

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso expressed their wish to conclude swiftly the negotiations on the pending free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam, in a joint press statement following their meeting on August 25 in Hanoi.

The two leaders expressed their appreciation of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation (PCA) between Vietnam and the EU, which was signed in June 2012, and welcomed the subsequent good progress in talks towards a Vietnam-EU FTA.

However, while Dung appreciated the ratification by a large number of EU Member States of the PCA, he expressed the hope that the European Parliament and remaining EU Member States would soon ratify it.

Nevertheless, both men emphasized that "a mutually-beneficial FTA will offer new business opportunities for economic operators, enhance inflows of foreign direct investment and promote growth and employment," and, in subsequent comments, Dung indicated that the FTA deal could be completed as soon as October this year.

The leaders welcomed the continued expansion of trade between them, and the EU's position as Vietnam's largest export market and second largest trade partner, with total trade reaching EUR27bn (USD35.6bn) last year. They also noted that the EU is one of the largest foreign investors in Vietnam with a total of EUR656m in 2013.

In addition, in his comments. Barroso looked towards an improved economic relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a whole.

In 2007, the EU agreed to launch negotiations on a region-to-region FTA with ASEAN, but these were put on hold in 2009. In December 2009, the European Commission decided to pursue free trade talks with ASEAN countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, as well as Vietnam – in a bilateral format, whilst preserving the strategic objective of a region-to-region FTA for a later date.

The EU has already completed trade negotiations with Singapore, and it was recently confirmed that talks are now underway with Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Source: Tax News