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(ĐN)- Various activities have been organized over the last days to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of Vietnam-US diplomatic relations.
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On Semiconductor Vietnam, high-tech project in Dong Nai. |
(ĐN)- Various activities have been organized over the last days to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of Vietnam-US diplomatic relations. Speaking at the conference in Ho Chi Minh City on July 31, US Consul General in the city Rena Bitter said that 20 years ago no one would have thought about what the two countries have achieved economically today. She noted that over the past two decades, the two countries have enjoyed numerous achievements in bilateral relations with the value of trade hitting US$35 billion in 2014 from over US$450 million in 1995.
Luong Van Tu, former head of the Viet Nam's WTO negotiation team and Chairman of the Vietnam-American Joint Trade and Economic Committee, said the two countries laid the stepping stone for trade relations with a bilateral trade agreement which cut nearly 300 import tariff lines in 2000.
In 2006, the two nations signed new bilateral trade pacts to pave the way for Vietnam to enter the World Trade Organization, with 10,000 import duty lines to be cut, including that levied on garment and textile products.
If the TPP pact is signed and implemented, Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. will likely rise to $50-60 billion annually, Tu added.
Improvement has not only been seen in trade, but also in the investment inflow to Vietnam, which surged from US$126 million in 2000 to $11 billion in 2013, he added.
Huynh The Du, a lecturer for the Fulbright Economics Teaching Programme, said that the US is an extremely important element in Vietnam’s international integration process. The TPP, with the participation of both the US and Vietnam, will help Vietnam enter a new stage of economic integration.
Negotiations on the TPP agreement began in 2005 and have so far attracted the participation of 12 countries including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.
Once signed, the TPP will form a free trade area with a population of 800 million and accounting for 30 percent of global trade turnover and nearly 40 percent of global output.
If the TPP is adopted, the key export sectors of Vietnam, such as garment-textile, footwear, furniture and electronics, will all benefit when tariff barriers for those items are reduced to zero percent.
Reported by K.G