Vietnam edges closer to WTO membership
GENEVA - Vietnam inched closer to World Trade Organisation membership when senior officials from Hanoi held a new round of talks with nations that are already part of the global body.
Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu told negotiators that Vietnam was "on the last paving stone on the long road to membership".
In particular, he said, Hanoi was "moving to a final deal" in crucial talks on a trade agreement with Washington.
An accord with the United States is one of the key hurdles remaining before Hanoi can get a green light to join the WTO, whose current 149 member governments set the rules of global commerce.
"The two sides are trying to conclude soon," Tu later told reporters.
US trade diplomats in Geneva, where the WTO is based, declined to make detailed comment. But officials said that Washington had signalled to the meeting that they had made "substantial progress".
One of the most vexed issues in the US-Vietnam talks has been copyright piracy, as Washington targets the country's vibrant bootlegging industry.
But talks have also focused on farm trade tariffs, telecommunications and market access for service companies.
WTO membership is seen as a way to smooth trading relations between Vietnam, which is a fast-growing economy of more than 82 million people, and current members of the organisation.
WTO entry talks often take years to complete: Vietnam's negotiations first kicked off in January 1995.
Under WTO rules, prospective members must strike direct deals with concerned trading partners.
Vietnam has already completed negotiations with more than 20 governments, and with the 25-nation
European Union which works as a bloc in the WTO.
Tu said that Hanoi had completed talks with Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
In addition to being close to a deal with the United States, Vietnam also expected soon to conclude talks with Mexico, Tu said.
"There are one or two minor issues left," he said, adding that a deal was likely within one or two weeks.
Eirik Glenne, the Norwegian trade ambassador who is steering Vietnam's membership talks, pointed to the "intensive work" taking place on the bilateral front, saying that it had "set the tone" for wider talks at the WTO.
"This work has been successful in pushing the process well forward into its final stages," he said.
Bilateral deals alone are not enough to win a seat at the WTO: before Vietnam can formally be admitted to the organisation, it must also complete broader negotiations with WTO nations as a group.
Such talks hinge on a prospective member's ability to show that its trade law and policy falls into line with WTO rules.
Vietnam has undertaken a string of reforms in an effort to boost its bid, but WTO members have been seeking a "road map for implementation," officials said.
The United States has also been pushing for Vietnam's WTO accession accord to include references to international labour standards, officials said.
Other Asian nations, however, have backed Hanoi's argument that these are not part of the bedrock of WTO agreements and that Vietnam has already done enough to show it respects workers' rights.
Once Hanoi has completed its bilateral deals, further rounds of multilateral talks are likely to be needed before all 149 members formally allow Vietnam to join, although no dates have so far been fixed, officials said.
"We are trying our best, but it depends on the will of WTO members," said Tun.
However, Hanoi's goal of winning a WTO place before it hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (
APEC) summit of world leaders in November appears within reach, said officials.
Agence France Presse - March 28, 2006.
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