National Assembly may ratify TPP later this year: official

The NA will ratify the pact after referring to the law on signing, joining and implementing international treaties, and considering other TPP-related issues such as the TPP’s constitutionality and compatibility with Vietnam’s legal documents, the possibility of enforcing the entire agreement or just part of the deal, and suggested revisions and supplements. 

The parliament will issue a resolution to ratify the TPP which will approve Vietnam’s joining in the pact and recognise the validity of the commitments that Vietnam will carry out, Manh noted. 

He said to speed up the ratification, ministries have been requested to worked with the NA’s External Relations Committee and other agencies of the legislature. 

For example, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has to provide full information about the TPP to NA deputies, and assess the pact’s constitutionality and compatibility with legal normative documents issued by the NA and the NA Standing Committee. It is also tasked with evaluating the TPP’s impacts on different industries, especially possible challenges, and work out counter-measures. 

Organisations and businesses’ opinions on the TPP will also be collected to help build a road map for its implementation, Manh added.

The TPP brings together Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. Their economic ministers signed the trade pact in New Zealand on February 4, 2016. 

The member states now have two years to complete domestic work for TPP ratification. The pact will take effect when ratified by parliaments of at least six signatory countries, who comprise at least 85 percent of all members’ overall GDP.