Brussels, 13/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - European and Vietnamese negotiators will meet in Brussels again this week, with an agenda comprising all the sections of the negotiation - including sustainable development.
The discussions will cover all the chapters of the future agreement - especially customs duties, services, investment, public procurement and regulatory aspects such as the technical obstacles to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary issues. Sustainable development will also be on the agenda - particularly labour and the environment, animal welfare and green technology.
The fifth session of the negotiations - in Hanoi in November 2013 - gave place to discussions on the initial offers on market access for goods and public procurement that were exchanged in July. The session also enabled a first exchange of views on the Green Tech annex to the agreement, which focuses on the fight against non-tariff barriers affecting environmental trade.
As well as tariff liberalisation and lifting non-tariff barriers, privatisation of state enterprises in Vietnam is one of the key issues on which Hanoi wants to make progress. The EU and Vietnam began their free trade negotiations in June 2012, hoping to seal a deal within three years. A seventh round of negotiations is planned in Hanoi in mid-March.
Vietnam is the fifth biggest trading partner of the EU in the ASEAN region. Bilateral trade in goods reached nearly €24 billion in 2012, with €5.3 billion in exports for the EU compared with €18.5 billion in exports for Vietnam. The EU is the fourth largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with $1.37 billion of direct investment made in the country in 2012. (EH/transl.fl)