VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh recently returned from a visit to the US, where he headed up a Vietnamese delegation lobbying for an early signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement.

At an interview granted a Washington-based Radio Voice of Vietnam reporter, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, showed his optimism about the recent progress of negotiations on the trade pact.

Following are key excerpts from the interview:

What is the basic content of the discussions with the US regarding TPP negotiations with the US – one of largest and most important partners in the agreement?

Bilateral negotiations with the US are very important as it is a key partner to the TPP pact.

The recent negotiations focused on the approach to open the US goods market, particularly as it relates to Vietnamese garments and footwear.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh

We also talked at some length on the methodology to open the Vietnamese market for the US to industrial products, automobiles, steel, pork, beef and chicken as well as the services market.  These are the pivotal markets the US seems concerned about.

The US is also very inquisitive about matters related to improvement of foreign investment regulations, intellectual property rights, state-owned enterprises (SMEs) and wild animal protection regulations.

In general, the negotiation dealt with very broad and complicated issues.

What are the most difficult snags the bilateral negotiations are encountering in order to finalize the pact?

It is difficult to say which issue is more complicated than any other. For example, the US asked Vietnam to meet high standards on intellectual property rights, which is an exceedingly complex matter.

They also asked Vietnam to implement comprehensive measures to combat wild animal trading and strictly follow the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is also an immensely complex matter.

The two sides have agreed in principle to address these issues, however factually, for example, Vietnam does have the necessary resources to fight wild animal trading.

This is where the acute complications come into play. If Vietnam does not implement a task effectively to the satisfaction of the US as a consequence of not having sufficient resources, what is the appropriate dispute resolution procedure?  

The answer to this question seems to be the major bottleneck in negotiations at this juncture.

Ultimately there should be due care and consideration given to developing countries to avoid disputes getting mired down in trade wars or a myriad of trade sanctions being leveled by one nation at another. The two sides should deal with the issues in the spirit of cooperation and goodwill, instead of using trade sanctions.

In short, each issue has its own difficulty. The negotiations on the approach to opening the markets are probably the most important, however.

Once Vietnam obtains a satisfactory result on opening the markets of its prime interest such as garments and footwear and the US is satisfied with the opening level of its markets of prime concern, then I believe the other issues will fall in line and be readily resolved.

I think the negotiations on opening the markets are the thorny problem and many of them may not be handled until the last minute.

What is your assessment of the overall TPP negotiation progress, especially after the negotiation in Hanoi in early September?

The TPP negotiations are on the right track as expected. The negotiation round in Hanoi was considered highly successful.

Giving trade packages at this time to exchange something for another thing is extremely difficult problem. Even so, the countries agreed that there will be another round of talks prior to next November in a bid to narrow differences and address the remaining issues in the form of different exchange packages, making it possible for ministers to give proper decisions at the last minute.

If countries pay a bit more effort and adjust their negotiation stance to become a little more flexible to each other like they did in Hanoi I am very optimistic we are nearing the end of negotiations.

VOV/VNN