VN signs second FTA in May
VGP – Viet Nam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on Friday officially inked a free trade agreement (FTA) after two years of talks, making it the first international partner to sign the deal with the Union.
 |
|
PM Nguyen Tan Dung and his counterparts of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sign the free trade agreement, Burabai, Kazakhstan on May 29. Photo: VGP |
The new trade deal is a comprehensive and highly committed one which covers trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property, food hygiene and safety, origin regulations, custom facilitation, technical barriers to trade, competition, legality and institution among others.
With total population of about 175 million and a GDP of US$2.5 trillion, the agreement plays an important role in the growth of a number of former Soviet Union states towards a uniformed economic space.
It is expected to boost Viet Nam’s exports, including farm produce, textile and garment, timber and processing products to these countries.
Especially, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will reduce import tariffs against all Vietnamese aquaculture products to zero.
According to the union’s preliminary assessment, the agreement will help raise the two-way trade value to US$10-12 billion by 2020 from US$4 billion last year.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, PM Nguyen Tan Dung said Viet Nam, as a dynamic member of ASEAN, will try its best to beef up cooperation between the Union and ASEAN, a 600 million-strong single market with a GDP of about US$2.5 trillion.
He said that Viet Nam is also speeding up negotiations for a number of other FTAs with major partners, which will create favorable conditions for the Union’s enterprises to invest and benefit from the Southeast Asian country’s trade linkages with the US, Japan, China, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea.
Meanwhile, Russian PM Medvedev said that the agreement would help expand economic growth in each country and accelerate trade and investment exchanges among the signatories./.
By Hai Minh
