Former minister: TPP to help reduce dependence on China

At a seminar on the TPP held in the northern province of Vinh Phuc last week, experts agreed that Vietnam is the biggest beneficiary of the TPP, which was signed in New Zealand in early February, saying the country stands a big chance of being less reliant on the Chinese market, VnExpress reports.

“The TPP will pave the way for Vietnam to expand export markets, instead of exporting farm produce and raw material to China,” Tuyen told the seminar organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Vietnamese National Assembly Committee for External Relations.

“To reduce dependence on China, Vietnam will have no other choice but to carry out institutional reforms. Our institutions should be different from and better than China’s,” Tuyen said, adding the next step Vietnam should do is to focus on technological innovations and creativity. Tuyen played a pivotal role in Vietnam’s signing a bilateral trade agreement with America in July 2000, and in Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization in November 2006.

Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang also agreed the TPP would offer opportunities for Vietnam to diversify export and import markets, thus avoiding dependence on a single market. “The TPP together with other free trade agreements that were already signed and will be signed will facilitate Vietnam’s export market diversification,” Hoang said.

Virginia Foote, chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Amcham), said the TPP would create good conditions for enterprises and the Vietnamese economy as a whole to grow further and decrease reliance on the Chinese market. The high-standard TPP deal will create an impetus for Vietnam’s economic development, bring in more international tourists and attract more foreign capital inflows, she added.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, the TPP will contribute to ensuring macroeconomic stability for the corporate sector to grow.

US Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius told the seminar that implementing a trade agreement with high standards like the TPP will prove tough for Vietnam. He noted the US would be on hand to help Vietnam execute the deal.

According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam had a trade deficit of US$32.3 billion with China last year while the economy’s total trade deficit with the world was a mere US$3.2 billion.

Last year Vietnam’s imports from the northern neighbor, mostly machines, tools, phone parts, computers and electronic devices, amounted to US$49.3 billion while Vietnam exported US$17 billion worth of products to China last year.