Vietnam’s goods export value to the United States (US) has soared nearly eight folds to US$8.56 billion in 2006 after five-year implementation of the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that took effect on December 10, 2001, a review seminar on BTA’s impacts on Vietnam’s economy held in Hanoi July 17 was told.
The BTA has lent a boost to Vietnam’s rapid economic growth. It has not only stimulated trade between the two countries but also facilitated Asia's second fastest economy to attract greater flows of foreign investment, the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Vietnam, Jonathan Aloisi said at the seminar co-organized by the Support for Trade Acceleration (STAR-Vietnam) project and the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).
After five-year implementation, Vietnam’s trade sector witnessed the most positive change. The nation’s exports stateside increased from US$1.1 billion in 2001 to US$8.56 billion in 2006, accounting for 21.6 per cent of its total export value, said Steve Parker, senior economist from the STAR-Vietnam.
He stressed that the US has slashed the average tax rate on Vietnamese goods from 40 per cent to around 4 per cent since the BTA came into effect. Staple exports of Vietnam to the US like apparel, footwear, seafood, tea and furniture obtained strong growth rates during the period.
The BTA also accelerated the American investment in Vietnam. By late 2006, US direct investment in Vietnam reached the US$4.5 billion mark, placing it sixth among 75 countries and territories that are investing in country, Parker remarked.
Though the agreement has brought in positive impacts on Vietnam’s economy, to maintain dynamic growth rate in the coming years, the country should continue carrying out legal reform, increasing investment in both private and state sectors, paying more attention to education, vocational training and health care and remaining abreast of the challenges that the integration process brings, said US experts at the seminar.
Tran Dinh Thien, Vice Director of the Vietnam Economics Institute, said that the BTA was a landmark for Vietnam's economy and that lessons learned from the five-year implementation of the BTA will help Vietnam to realize and overcome the challenges that the country's WTO accession has brought with it.
The fast-growing economy of Vietnam is forecast to bag around US$10 billion from goods exports to the United States in 2007, up 25 per cent against 2006, according to Nguyen Duy Khien, Vietnamese Trade Counselor to the US.
The PNTR passage is hoped to accelerate bilateral trade to US$15 billion in 2010.
The US is now Vietnam’s largest export market while the ASEAN country ranks 38th among countries and territories exporting to the US and 70th among importers of products from the foreign nation. (Local sources, dataweb.usitc.gov, US Embassy Press Release)
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