~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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[Year 2001]

Vietnam Party warns U.S. trade pact could be Trojan horse

HANOI - Vietnam's Communist Party newspaper warned on Thursday that anti-communist forces would use a trade agreement with the United States to sabotage the country's socialist regime. "The pact presents our country with many difficulties and challenges," the Nhan Dan (People) daily said in a front-page editorial, a day after the National Assembly ratified the historic pact.

"A major challenge is that many forces in the United States have not parted with the hostile attitude toward Vietnam," it said. "They are willing to abuse the trade pact to drive our country off its socialist course and to lose its sovereignty."

The editorial said the passage of the Vietnam Human Rights Act by the U.S. House of Representative was evidence of such a plot. "Our people strongly condemns and requests to abolish forever that act," the paper said. The assembly on Wednesday voted 278 to 85 in favour of the market opening pact, which was ratified by Washington last month. But in the resolution passing the agreement, the assembly stated any action that amounted to interference into Vietnam's internal affairs could affect its implementation.

Do Van Tai, head of the assembly's external relations department, said the vote for the pact would have been higher had it not been for the rights bill, which would tie future non-humanitarian U.S. aid to Vietnam to greater respect for rights. Assembly delegates reiterated calls for a scrapping of the bill, arguing it was hypocritical in view of suffering the United States had caused during the Vietnam War. The pact took years to negotiate and 16 months to ratify after its signing in July 2000. It removes Vietnam from the small group of states -- including North Korea, Cuba, Serbia and Afghanistan -- denied normal trade ties with the United States.

It is expected to provide a major boost for Vietnam's exports and its economy, currently the second-fastest growing in east Asia after fellow communist neighbour China. If properly implemented, diplomats say the pact should ease Hanoi's eventual accession to the World Trade Organisation.

Reuters - November 29, 2001.