US-Vietnam textile talks begin Wednesday
HANOI - The US-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement took six years of torturous negotiations, but Washington is hoping for a speedier
conclusion to a textile accord when talks get under way this week.
Vietnam will be an unwilling participant when the three days of formal negotiations laying out the ground rules for trade in textiles
and apparel between the two former sworn enemies begin on Wednesday in Hanoi.
Despite US hopes for a swift result, the talks are likely to be a protracted affair, punctuated by cries of protectionism from Vietnam's
communist government, which is fearful of quotas being imposed on its exports.
Hanoi has accused Washington of seeking to shield its small garment manufacturing industry from cheaper imports from Vietnam,
where labour costs are a fraction of those incurred in the United States.
"Industrialised countries always call on developing states to open their markets while they close their markets to products that
developing countries have great potential for, such as textiles and garments," Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan told
reporters last week.
Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu will lead the Vietnamese side against a team headed by David Spooner, textile expert at the
Office of the US Trade Representative, an executive arm of the White House.
Khoan, the key player in the July 2000 trade pact with the United States that came into force in December 2001, said the imposition
of quotas would stifle the country's attempts to lift itself from poverty.
Agence France Presse - February 17, 2003
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