Brussels, 31/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of the committee on international trade (INTA) of the European Parliament, headed up by its chairman, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), will visit Vietnam from 6 to 10 April, to meet political, institutional and civil society representatives to discuss talks taking place on a free-trade agreement, which are nearing their end.
In addition to Lange, the delegation will be made up of the rapporteur in charge of monitoring the trade negotiations, Jan Zahradil (ECR, Czech Republic), plus Daniel Caspary (EPP, Germany), Iuliu Winkler (EPP, Romania), David Martin (S&D, UK), Marielle De Sarnez (ALDE, France), Franck Proust (EPP, France) and Inmaculada Rodriguez-Pinero Fernandez (S&D, Spain). The MEPs will be travelling to Hanoi, the political capital of the country, and Ho Chi Minh City, the country's economic powerhouse.
The visit will follow the twelfth round of negotiations, which was held in Hanoi from 23 to 27 March, and which allowed the negotiators to make “new progress” towards the “swift” conclusion of an agreement. Ahead of the next negotiation round, which will be held in Brussels in the first half of June, contacts will intensify at negotiator-in-chief and at technical levels.
On the sidelines of a meeting of the European trade ministers in Riga on 25 March, Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström expressed her hopes of sealing the deal “before the summer”.
Next week, the INTA delegation will be seeking to ensure that the requests made by the European Parliament in its resolution of 17 April 2014 are being taken into account. In this resolution, MEPs called for the future agreement to include a chapter on sustainable development and a human rights safeguard clause. The text calls for the future agreement to be made conditional on concrete progress on human rights and to include a suspension clause in the event of serious violations, and invites the Commission to carry out an impact assessment of the future agreement on human rights.
The EU-Vietnam free-trade agreement will cover the trade in goods and services, investments, public procurement, intellectual property rights (including geographical indications), non-tariff barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, technical barriers to trade, customs cooperation and trade facilitation and will include a chapter on sustainable development.
In 2013, the bilateral trade in goods was worth €27.1 billion, including €21.3 billion worth of exports from Vietnam. The EU's direct investment in Vietnam was $656 million in 2013, making the EU the sixth largest investor in the country. (Emmanuel Hagry)