Washington, D.C. - United States Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab met in Washington today with Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman of Vietnam's Office of Government for the first ministerial meeting under the U.S.-Vietnam Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). The meeting was focused on Vietnam’s implementation of its World Trade
Organization (WTO) commitments as well as ways to further deepen trade and
investment relations between the United
States and Vietnam.
“We are pleased with Vietnam’s progress to date in implementing its
WTO commitments and domestic reform agenda, which have generated striking
economic gains and steadily enhanced Vietnam’s regional and global
economic competitiveness,” Ambassador Schwab said. “We intend to remain
actively engaged with Vietnam to support its ongoing work
and help ensure that implementation efforts stay on track.”
During the discussions, Ambassador Schwab underscored
U.S. interest in ensuring
that the commitments Vietnam made regarding its
distribution and other service sectors are implemented in a transparent and
timely manner. She also urged Vietnam to take additional steps to
improve its enforcement of intellectual property protection. In addition,
the two ministers discussed agriculture, telecommunications, textiles, and other
trade and investment issues, as well as Vietnam’s requests for further
technical assistance to support its reform efforts.
Ambassador Schwab and Minister Phuc welcomed the
significant growth in bilateral trade during the past year and the opportunity
to further strengthen U.S.-Vietnam trade and investment relations. Two-way
goods trade between the United
States and Vietnam totaled $10.2 billion during
the first 10 months of 2007, an increase of 25 percent over the same period the
previous year.
The United
States plans to continue building our trade and investment
ties with Vietnam, which is among the most
dynamic markets in the world. The two countries have developed a
cooperative relationship under the TIFA and plan to explore new initiatives over
the coming year that will create additional opportunities for
U.S. and Vietnamese
businesses.
Background
U.S.
exports to Vietnam totaled $1.4 billion between
January and October 2007 (the most recent available data), a 62-percent increase
over the same period in 2006. Key U.S. export categories included
machinery, motor vehicles, plastics and cotton. Vietnam became
the WTO’s 150th Member on January 11, 2007. With a market of over 85
million people, Vietnam is the 13th most populous
nation in the world and has experienced economic growth in excess of 7 percent
per year for each of the last five years.
The United
States and Vietnam signed the TIFA on June 21,
2006. The TIFA was negotiated under the Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative (EAI).
President Bush launched the EAI to further strengthen ties with countries in the
commercially and strategically significant Southeast Asian region, and the
United States now has TIFAs
with Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, and an FTA with Singapore.
The United States also is
negotiating an FTA with Malaysia and will hold the next round of
negotiations in Malaysia during the week of January
14. The U.S. FTA negotiations with Thailand have
been suspended until a democratically-elected government is in
place.
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