A new debate on trade agreements with Vietnam – a free trade agreement (FTA) and an investment protection agreement (IPA) – confirmed divisions but also clarified expectations in the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade on Wednesday 6 November (see EUROPE 12363/26).
While MEPs generally agreed that the human rights situation in Vietnam was largely unsatisfactory, they differ on how the EU could use this agreement to support the Asian country’s democratic reform process.
According to right-wing and centre MEPs, the implementation of the FTA would anchor Vietnam on the path of these reforms, through a strict implementation programme involving stakeholders, which “will support change”, in the words of EPP MEP Iuliu Winkler (Romania).
But, in the face of the deterioration in respect for human rights under the Hanoi government (see EUROPE 12363/26) in recent months, left-wing groups have called for direct increased pressure on the Vietnamese government.
“We have a short period where we can really apply leverage, we need to use that period very strategically”, said British MEP Jude Kirton-Darling, speaking on behalf of the socialist group. She added that her group would decide on its voting position based on Hanoi’s progress on a series of concrete elements over the coming months.
The Greens/EFA group, supported by the GUE/NGL group, preferred to request an extension of the deadline for tabling amendments, set at 11 November by rapporteur Jan Zahradil (ECR, Czech Republic).
Finalised in December 2015 and signed in June 2019 (see EUROPE 12286/5), these so-called ‘new generation’ agreements are the first of their kind with a developing country – which is also the EU’s second largest trading partner in ASEAN.
The FTA is expected to abolish 99% of bilateral trade tariffs over a 10-year period. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)