In order to boost the development of economic sectors and protect domestic production, many administrative measures have been applied, such as banning imports, increasing tax rates and subsidizing prices.

After Vietnam joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO), all direct export subsidies contrary to WTO rules will be abolished. Therefore, the export sector will no longer rely on State subsidies. Despite many Vietnamese products taking the top spot in the world in export turnover, their competitive capacity and value remain low. The competitive edge of Vietnamese products mostly depends on the advantages of natural resources and abundant workforce which are considered unsustainable factors.

Vietnamese exporters will have to face a lot of difficulties in exporting their products to foreign countries such as technical barriers, packaging and quarantine but many of them have so far paid no attention to the issue.

Grasping great opportunities
According to economic experts, the removal of tariff barriers will make the price of import materials go down. This will make the consumption price decrease and benefit consumers. There is a narrow gap between domestic and world prices, which helps reduce smuggling and trade fraud and make the Vietnamese market healthier.

The presence of foreign corporations will also give fresh impetus to improve competitive edges of local distributors and speed up the establishment of a modern distribution system in the market. Consumers will have opportunities to buy high-quality goods at reasonable prices with better services.

Deputy Minister of Trade Le Danh Vinh said the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has 149 members, accounting for over 90 percent of the global trade turnover. When joining the WTO, Vietnamese goods will enjoy preferential tariffs like other WTO members. Vietnam’s accession to the WTO will also offer great opportunities for Vietnam to penetrate markets of WTO members and increase the country’s export turnover.

To grasp opportunities in the integration process, the country’s trade development strategy in the future should change. An export development project in the 2006-2010 period, which has been approved by the Government, aims to create a favourable procedure for sectors to develop, improving their competitiveness and penetrating deeply international markets. Accordingly, it will also focus on improving processing quality and values of agriculture, forestry and seafood products, investing in technology and management to increase added values of products with high technology, and developing the potential of electronics and information technology. The Ministry of Trade (MoT) will further strengthen trade promotion activities to help enterprises develop their trademarks in order to deeply penetrate into the international market.

For domestic market, according to a market development project for the 2006-2010 period which is being built, the MoT will concentrate on improving market competitiveness by consolidating the trade structure system, issuing policies to encourage domestic distribution enterprises for further development, and fostering market forecast information for the State’s macro-regulation and management. In addition, the MoT also develops standards for product quality and brand names in accordance with international regulations.