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Talks orbit around greater market access, WTO accession, and subsidies

HANOI - 01/17/06 - US trade officials are in Vietnam Monday for a three-day visit for talks on the Southeast Asian country's accession to the World Trade Organization.
 
According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US delegation is meeting with their Vietnamese counterparts to discuss agricultural subsidies and greater access for American companies to the Vietnamese services sector, primarily in the banking and telecommunications fields.
 
Christopher Hill, assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs said last week that it was possible that the two countries could conclude their negotiations paving the way for Vietnam's accession to the WTO before the end of this year.
 
One of the requirements for WTO entry is the granting by the US Congress of so-called Permanent Normal trading Relations (PNTR) to Vietnam.

Analysts have said that Washington and Hanoi would have to sign a bilateral agreement very soon to make it possible for the Congress to vote in PNTR early in the year.

Congress will otherwise be reluctant to schedule such a sensitive vote just few months before the November elections, they have said.

Vietnam had hoped to join the 149-member, Geneva-based organization at the ministers meeting in Hong Kong last month, but failed to do so pending the conclusion of the negotiation with several countries including the US, New Zealand, Mexico, Honduras, and Australia.

Hanoi has already held nine rounds of negotiations with the US with Vietnamese officials saying that a new deadline for the country's accession to the WTO won't be targeted to "avoid unnecessary pressure."

Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman, Le Dung, told the media that "Vietnam has achieved nine round of negotiations with the US and the two countries have considerably reduced the gap" between their respective positions and that the remaining differences "are not numerous but very complicated," he said.

Interviewed on the eve of the trip to Hanoi, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said that he was "optimistic" about the negotiations and that a deal with the US would be "hugely beneficial to Vietnam, whose exports to the US are five times greater than its imports from the US."

The American business community in Vietnam is reportedly optimistic about the negotiations.

"We are happy to see both sides sitting together to work out these issues," said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi (AMCHAM).

The business group, he said, "strongly supports and encourages Vietnam's accession at the earliest possible date, provided Vietnam guarantees fair market access and national treatment to US firms."
 
Two-way trade between Vietnam and the US reached more than $6 billion in 2005, making the country Vietnam's largest trading partner.

The negotiations come as the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry has released a report setting a target of generating between $47 billion and $50 billion in export turnover by increasing the export of industrial products from 76% in 2005 to between 77% and 80% in 2010.

In 2006, the industrial sector is forecasting earnings of 28.4 billion from the export of industrial products, a year-on-year rise of 15.9%.
 
To reach the target, the Ministry said, the industrial sector will focus on the export of processed and manufactured industrial products, including textile and garments, shoes, electronic appliances, spare computer parts, and wooden furniture.

The sector will also develop production of other potential products such as cable, mechanical products, fine art and handicraft items, and ocean-going ships, the government agency said.

The trade talks in Hanoi are scheduled to end tomorrow.

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