Vietnam is due to officially join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on November 7. However, what is next after that?

In fact, all information collected from bilateral and multi-lateral negotiations so far is too common to be of much help to Vietnamese enterprises in building their own business strategies. If Vietnamese management agencies and enterprises only rely on basic WTO rules, they will have to make a drastic change in their operations and competitive activities, which requires not only their concerted efforts but also great support from international organisations.

Currently, there are 20 donors with some 50 projects which provide different forms of trade support for Vietnam in its WTO accession process.

The team leader of the Multilateral Trade Assistance Project, Dr Peter Naray, says the first challenge for Vietnam in its post WTO accession period is that the country will have to fully implement its commitments. Some areas which are considered to be difficult for Vietnam to implement are services, intellectual property, agriculture and fair trade. Therefore, Vietnam needs to make a drastic change in the management of trade activities, budget allocation and  human resource development.

It is rather difficult for not only Vietnam but also most countries to abide by WTO rules.

The crux of the matter is that Vietnam needs to grasp good opportunities after it enters the world trade body and make the best of these opportunities to achieve greater market penetration, particularly for export products such as leather footwear, garments and textiles and home utensils. The best way is to sign trade agreements on specific groups of items with WTO member countries to seize opportunities, Mr Naray stressed.

If no thorough preparations are made, domestic enterprises will find it difficulty to take full advantage of opportunities when joining the WTO.

The European Commission (EC) and a group of international experts recently put forth 11 proposals with 180 action programmes with a view to helping Vietnam make the best of trade benefits after joining the global trade club. These proposals focus on developing trade policies, drawing up strategies for foreign market approach, increasing enterprises’ competitive capacity through trade supporting institutions and enterprise associations and assisting localities in agricultural development.

Vietnam is the world’s leading export of various agricultural products. A series of preferential treatment measures are being proposed to boost trade in farm products and develop farm product processing industry.

Vietnam has succeeded in increasing seafood exports to both the EU and the US at an annual growth rate of a dozen percent or more. However, anti-dumping investigations and stricter requirements for antibiotic residue control are posing challenges for the fisheries industry, requiring greater attention from aqua-culture breeders and enterprises as well,) said Nguyen Huu Dung, President of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Processors and Exporters (VASEP).

Pham Chi Lan, Former member of the Government Prime Minister’s Research Board says in the near future, State-subsidized enterprises will fail to avoid tough competitions from major international groups. But, more important, small and medium sized enterprises will have to face bigger challenges as most of them belong to the private economic sector which is opening up its market to foreign investors. Past experience in the implementation of the Vietnam-US Bilateral Agreement (BTA) showed that  enterprises would have to find their own ways to overcome challenges .

According to economic experts, Vietnam needs an overall strategy for developing service sectors which will be most affected by the WTO accession process. So, it is very important to select from 155 service sectors proposed by the WTO the most appropriate ones in which Vietnam can have a competitive edge against foreign rivals.

After joining the WTO, it is also urgent to disseminate information about opportunities and challenges arising from Vietnam’s WTO accession to the administrations at all levels, business circles and social organisations.

China is a typical example in the successful implementation of its WTO negotiation process and commitments. In the past five years before joining the WTO, it had kept people and enterprises fully informed of both opportunities and challenges they would face in the long run.