AEC establishment and FTAs under review
(VOV) - A seminar was held in Can Tho on June 10, to disseminate information on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and Free Trade Agreements (FTA) which Vietnam participated in.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Cam Tu said that the AEC expected to be set up by late 2015 will mark a milestone in the process of comprehensive integration of the South Asian economies, turning the economies of ten member states into a united production and trade bloc, with a total population of 600 million people and an annual GDP of around US$2,000 billion.
Vietnam is currently conducting FTA negotiations with the EU, the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreements.
During the seminar, Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) representatives demonstrated Vietnam’s commitments to trade, service and investment in the FTAs Vietnam is involved in. They also analysed the potential challenges and opportunities when Vietnam integrates deeper into the regional grouping. Representatives from the General Department of Taxation announced regulations on the timeframe for reducing tariffs on commodities such as seafood, soap, wheat flour and mechanical equipment.
The MoIT Import-Export Department also raised businesses’ awareness about issues such as different types of preferential tariffs, the rule of origin and certificate of origin (C/O) formalities.