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Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh speaks at the meeting.

On September 23, at ameeting of the Supervisory Delegation, the National Assembly Standing Committee with the Government andministries, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh presented a report on the implementation of free trade agreements (FTAs) to which Vietnam is a member.

Minister Anh mentioned in detail the results achieved after more than one year of implementing the CPTPP and FTA.

The CPTPP took effect from January 14, 2019. Anh stated that in 2019, trade turnover between Vietnam and the 10 CPTPP countries reached US$77.4 billion, increasing by 3.9% compared to 2018.

Of which, Vietnam’s export turnover to the 10 CPTPP countries hit $39.5 billion, increasing by 7.2% compared to 2018. Thus, Vietnam had a trade surplus of $1.6 billion to the CPTPP countries, while Vietnam had a trade deficit of $0.9 billion from CPTPP countries in 2018.

Notably, if looking at only the import-export turnover to the two new markets without FTAs like Canada and Mexico, in 2019, Vietnam saw a trade surplus of more than $5 billion, equivalent to 50% of the total trade surplus of Vietnam.

These are also the two new partners having an FTA relationship. Exports to Canada increased by 29.8% while thoseto Mexico increased by 26.3%. Among the six partner countries, exports to Japan accounted for the highest proportion of Vietnam's total exports (at 8.4%), and followed by Canada (1.6%).

The Minister of Industry and Trade said Vietnam’s export market share in CPTPP partner countries in still low,of which, Japan accounts the highest portion of 2.8%, and Mexico the lowest portion of 0.6%.

The market share of Vietnamese products in other markets is 1.6% in Australia, 1.3% in New Zealand,0.9% in Singapore and 0.8% in Canada. Therefore, there is a lot of potential for export growth, increasing market share in these partners' markets.

Besides the economic and trade perspective, according to Anh, the implementation of the CPTPP commitments has helped Vietnam complete the legal framework in many areas.

Regarding the environment, currently, Vietnam is developing a draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, including requirements of international economic integration.

Agricultural and fishery products have achieved good export growth in the EVFTA. Photo: N.T

To implement the CPTPP’s commitments, the Government has developed and submitted to the National Assembly for approval of the Labour Code 2019 to ensure consistency with international labor standards.

It has developed applicationsfor ratification of the two conventions of the InternationalLabor Organization (ILO), including Convention No.98 on the application of principles of the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining and Convention No. 105 on Abolition of Forced Labor, which have been approved.

Regarding government procurement and e-commerce, currently, legal documents guiding the implementation of these areas, including the decree guiding the bidding packages under the scope of the CPTPP and only applied to CPTPP countries, and the decree guiding the Law on Cyber ​​Security are being finalised to prepare for promulgation.

Besides the CPTPP, Anh also mentioned outstanding results achieved after more than a month of implementation of the EVFTA.

Specifically, from August 1 to the end of August 31, authorised organisations have issued over 7,200 sets of C/O form EUR.1 with a turnover of $277 million to 28 EU countries.

The commodities that have been issued C/O form EUR.1 are mainly footwear, seafood, plastic and plastic products, coffee, textiles, bags, suitcases, fruits and vegetables, rattan and bamboo products.

Most import markets are countries with ports and distribution and transshipment centresof the EU such as Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France and the UK. In particular, many shipments have arrived in the EU market, have been cleared and enjoyed preferential treatment from this agreement.

The EVFTA has been in effect fora short time but has achieved positive results. Minister of the Industry and Trade sector also emphasised that to continue to improve implementation, the Government will continue to review to perfect solutions to improve the implementation of the agreement, especially the amendment and supplement of legal documents to ensure compliance with the EVFTA.