Brussels, 27/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - During the 12th session of EU-Vietnam free trade talks, in Hanoi on 23-27 March, European and Vietnamese negotiators recorded “further progress on finding common ground on all open issues”, and their efforts will continue “to work towards a swift conclusion of the negotiations”, the European Commission announced at the end of their work.
During the course of this week, discussions focused on goods (customs duties, rules of origin, non-tariff barriers and export rights), services and investment, public procurement, public enterprise, intellectual property rights (including geographical indications) and regulatory issues. The chief negotiators, the deputy director general of the European Commission's DG Trade - Mauro Petriccione, and Vietnam's vice minister for industry and trade - Tran Quoc Khanh, held intensive discussions on the key areas of the future agreement and explored further leeway on both sides.
In the run-up to the next negotiating session, tentatively scheduled for the first half of June in Brussels, contacts will be intensified at the level of the chief negotiators and at the technical level.
“We are moving forward very well. There are some issues outstanding. We count on concluding before the summer”, said European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, on the sidelines of the informal European trade ministers' meeting in Riga on 25 March.
This agreement will cover trade in goods and services, investment, public procurement, intellectual property rights (including geographical indications), non-tariff barriers, animal and plant health and health issues, technical barriers to trade, customs cooperation and trade facilitation, and it will include a chapter on sustainable development.
In 2013, bilateral trade in goods was worth €27.1 billion, €21.3 billion of which was in exports from Vietnam. EU direct investment in Vietnam was $656 million in 2013, making the EU the sixth largest investor in the country. (Emmanuel Hagry)