Gov’t approves First Protocol amending ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement

Accordingly, the Government assigns the Ministry of Industry and Trade to take charge of implementing the protocol in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the concerned ministries and agencies, aiming to support the business community to effectively pounce on opportunities, rights and interests brought about by the document.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assigned to complete all the relevant diplomatic procedures before August 1, 2020.

The ATIGA was signed in February 2009 and came into effect on May 17, 2010. It was formerly known as the Agreement on the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (CEPT/AFTA), signed in 1992.

ATIGA is ASEAN’s first comprehensive agreement to adjust all intra-bloc goods trading activities. The document has been built on the basis of synthesizing the tariff reduction / elimination commitments reached in the CEPT/AFTA and relevant treaties and protocols.

Viet Nam has become a member of ASEAN since 1995. The country started implementing the CEPT/AFTA in 1996 and later continues to implement the ATIGA.

In the ATIGA, ASEAN member states give each other equal or more favorable tariff concessions than those for their partners in the free trade agreements (FTAs) to which ASEAN is a signatory (ASEAN FTAs).

In addition to tariff commitments, the ATIGA also includes many other commitments regarding the elimination of non-tariff barriers, the rules of origin, trade facilitation, customs, standards and conformity, and sanitary and epidemiological measures.

 By Vien Nhu