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Vietnam holds WTO talks with Japan,
Korea
HANOI - Vietnam has
finished its latest round of talks with South
Korea and Japan about Vietnam joining the World
Trade Organization (WTO), the National Committee
for International Economic Cooperation (NCIEC)
reported.
While Vietnam's talks with South
Korea (in Hanoi from April 13-14) focused on
tariffs that will be applicable to several major
South Korean export items once Vietnam opens its
market, negotiations between Vietnam and Japan in
Tokyo zeroed in on trade and services.
At
previous talks in Seoul, Vietnam and South Korea
failed to reach an agreement on a wide range of
issues due to South Korea stipulating requirements
for Vietnam that were too high, the NCIEC said.
The NCIEC reported that during
negotiations Vietnam proposed the two sides be
more flexible and focus on staples with relatively
high export revenues.
Vietnamese
negotiators argued that once Vietnam completely
opens its market, South Korean investors
conducting business in Vietnam will be adversely
affected.
Vietnam to date has been one of
South Korea's major trade partners, while South
Korea is among Vietnam's leading investors,
especially in clothing, footwear and electronics.
Meanwhile, a source said that talks with
Japan reaped positive results, including the
narrowing of tariff gaps. Negotiations are on
track, and the two sides have determined important
areas of discussion, which will require more
talks.
The source believed that if Vietnam
and Japan reach agreements in these areas,
bilateral negotiations regarding Vietnam's WTO
accession bid will soon wrap up.
Vietnam
and Japan will hold two bilateral talks next month
and one or two more in June, when loose ends will
be tied up, the source said.
To date,
Japan has expressed support for Vietnam's entry
into the WTO.
During the Vietnamese Prime
Minister's visit to Tokyo last month, his Japanese
counterpart affirmed strong support for Vietnam's
entry into the trade body as soon as possible.
In another development, Vietnam also
finished bilateral negotiations with Uruguay in
Geneva, Switzerland, according to Vietnam's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ngo Quang
Xuan, Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations
in Geneva, noted that the two nations signing an
agreement to finish talks on Vietnam's accession
to the WTO would boost Vietnam's efforts to join
the organization soon.
Vietnam, in the
first three months of the year, held 15 sessions
of bilateral talks with WTO member countries,
including the US, Canada, China, South Korea,
Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, India
and several Latin American countries.
Officials have commented that Vietnam will
face more difficulty negotiating with the US,
Japan and China, as these countries are the
world's leaders in trade.
The 10th round
of multilateral negotiations for Vietnam's
accession into the world's largest trade body is
scheduled to take place in Geneva next month.
Having begun multilateral negotiations to
join the WTO in July 1998, Vietnam has thus far
concluded negotiations with Argentina, Brazil,
Cuba, Chile, the European Union and Singapore.
Vietnam, and its partners, hope to
complete negotiations in time for Vietnam to get
membership during the WTO's Ministerial Meeting in
Hong Kong this December.
(Asia Pulse/VNA) |
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