If Vietnamese
enterprises have thorough preparations, they can take full advantage of the
opportunities to be brought by free trade agreements (FTA) between Vietnam and
other countries in the world.

Vietnam is under the negotiations for a
series of FTA with countries and blocs. According to the Ministry of Industry
and Trade (MOIT), to date, Vietnam
and Chile
has conducted seven negotiation sessions on a bilateral FTA. The ministry
believes that it is very likely that the two sides will reach an FTA after some
more negotiation sessions.

Meanwhile, Vietnam and Canada have reached the consensuses
on basic points for the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement
FIPA, which is expected to be signed right in 2011.

The issues
relating to the possible impacts of the FTA on the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, are being considered by
the Vietnamese agencies and the union’s agencies. Recently, the EU has been
joining forces to organize events in Vietnam where the advantages are
analyzed if the two sides sign an FTA.

The
European Free Trade Association EFTA, including Norway, Switzerland, Iceland
and Liechtenstein, and Vietnam, have formed up a taskforce in charge of
researching and reporting the possibility to conduct negotiations for an FTA
between Vietnam and EFTA.

In Asia, Vietnam, as a
member of ASEAN bloc, is joining the FTA negotiations with big partners.
Besides, it is also possible that Vietnam
would conduct negotiations for the FTA between Vietnam
and Laos and between Vietnam and Taiwan.

The
Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement or TPP, if successfully
negotiated, is believed to help open the door to one of the most important
market area for Vietnam.
At the latest sixth negotiation rounds, the countries including Brunei, Chile,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam discussed
the issues relating to the trade promotion.

TPP is the
area which has the gross domestic products GDP of up to 16 trillion dollars,
the total population of 472 million. TPP has been described as the most
ambitious trade integration process in the history of Asia-Pacific.

With the
FTA which were signed or will be signed in the future, Vietnamese enterprises
have a lot of opportunities to expand the export markets.

As for the
export to the EU, for example, experts can foresee the sharp increases in the
export of some product items to the market, once the FTA between Vietnam and EU
is signed and takes effect.

If
Vietnamese garment products can enjoy the import tariff of zero percent when
entering the EU market, they will have big advantages over the products from
Bangladesh, China, India or Pakistan, because the products from the nations are
imposed the average tax rate of 11 percent, according to Claudio Dordi, an
expert from Multrap project (the European Union’s Multilateral Trade Assistance
Project).

The same
advantages will also be enjoyed by Vietnamese footwear producers once
preferential tariffs are applied under the frame of the Vietnam-EU FTA.

Regarding
the Russian market, Le Van Dao, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel
Association (Vitas), said Vietnamese enterprises can exploit the market and can
raise the export turnover to Russia
to one billion dollars, if they can enjoy preferential tariffs.

Russia is the market which has a very high
demand for garment products, but it is imposing overly high tariffs, therefore,
Vietnamese garment companies still cannot cement their positions in the market.

“However,
the situation will be different, and Vietnamese enterprises will have
opportunities to boost exports to the market if an FTA is signed,” Dao said.

In fact,
Vietnamese enterprises still cannot take full advantage of the signed FTAs. For
example, the growth rate of garment exports to Japan is modest at 10 percent per
annum.

C. V