After 11 months of persisting with negotiations, the WTO entry door has finally opened for Vietnam with the conclusion of the Vietnam-US round of bilateral negotiations in Washington on May 13.

As Dr Le Danh Doanh said, Vietnam has traveled 95 miles with only five left to finalise WTO admission procedures in the final multi-lateral round of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan affirmed that Vietnam will for certain join the WTO this year. While participating in the global playground, the country should be imperturbable re-evaluating the real strength of the whole economy in general, and every field, economic sector and business in particular to take measures against trade challenges posed by the WTO.

According to economic experts, while Vietnam is not yet a WTO member, tax rates levied on the country’s export products can be as high as to 30-40 percent, even 50-70 percent if it is accused of dumping products on foreign markets.

But when Vietnam becomes a WTO member, the tax rate will stand only 0-5 percent if there are no trade disputes. So, joining the organisation will help Vietnamese businesses achieve a greater penetration of export markets and be protected by WTO regulations if trade disputes occur. In addition, all fields such as legal documents, administrative procedures and business organisations need to be improved to make them conform to standards set by the WTO.

Obviously, judging from a certain angle, Vietnam will benefit a lot from the organisation, especially the ability to increase export turnover rapidly. However, the more opportunities and benefits brought by WTO entry, the more challenges and obstacles Vietnam will have to face.

Joining the WTO is synonymous with accepting the opening up of commodities and service markets for foreign enterprises. If the competitive capacity of most goods and services produced by domestic businesses remains poor, how will Vietnam cope with challenges and drawbacks after it accedes to the WTO?

For example, as an agricultural country, Vietnam boasts plenty of farm products. Ironically, up to 70 percent of fruit and vegetables at restaurants and hotels in Vietnam originate from foreign countries while imported fruit and vegetables in big cities account for 20-30 percent. Many Vietnamese agricultural products are already too weak on the domestic ground, how will they manage after Vietnam engages in the global playground?

To succeed in the world market during the current international integration process, it is impossible to apply the model of building a house from top to bottom. Many Vietnamese people prefer foreign goods to domestic ones because of their better quality, after sales promotions and better services. To minimise disadvantages after joining the WTO and seek solutions to benefit most from the organisation, the State needs to work out strategic orientations for enterprises to follow.

For instance, from the very early stage before joining the WTO, the Chinese Government informed their businesses of all competitive conditions. As a result, 19 sectors including steel, automobiles and agricultures which foreign experts said were likely to go bankrupt after China joins the WTO, are now prospering.

For enterprises, mechanisms are only buoys, but "how to swim" is decided by businesses themselves. Joining the WTO means State subsidies will no longer exist. Therefore, for further development, domestic enterprises will have to exert greater efforts. To determine success or failure on the WTO playground, the role of the "captain" on an enterprise ship is of great importance. In other words, after Vietnam enters the organisation, enterprises likely to go bankruptcy will be those which rely on State subsidies and monopolies or are always content with themselves and hesitant to make drastic reform.

It is high time researchers, scientists and law-makers joined the tough competition. Acceding to the WTO, one of the most effective measures to protect domestic products is the building of technical barriers (technical standards), which are applicable instead of tariff barriers in many countries.

For instance, in the 1998-2000 period, when the Boeing group’s market share was in danger of being taken over by the Airbus group, the US Government applied technical barriers stipulating noise standards on all aviation carriers using Airbus aircraft when landing at US airports.