On the occasion of the seminar on “The 2009 Trade Outlook; U.S. Trade Policy in the Obama Administration - Considerations for Vietnam” held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Miller & Chevalier Chartered law firm in Hanoi on March 3, 2009, the Vietnam Business Forum reporter Lan Anh had a talk with Mr Jay L. Eizenstat, the executive of the United State Trade Representation (USTR), on impacts of US trade policy on Vietnam in the coming time.
Like other nations, Vietnam is applying drastic measures to support enterprises such as interest subsidy, tax delay, tax break and interest-free loans to pay salaries to stimulate the demand. Do these measures break WTO commitments on subsidy?
In general, to date, all activities of US trade representatives take aim at subsidisation treatments by general governments or China like export credit or tax return, I have never heard of similar investigations into Vietnam.
Amidst global economic crisis, governments of all nations cannot sit still before mounting difficulties of their companies. In the US, no one can imagine that the Government pumps money to nationalise major banks and insurers. At present, supporting enterprises seems to be a common trend in the world. Thus, such supports as in Vietnam are reasonable. Even, the US is strongly supporting the automobile industry. This move is similar to a sort of subsidy but the US does not fear to be sued because other automotive industries in the EU and Japan also have similar treatments although their inventions are less.
So, do you think Vietnamese exports will encounter trade barriers in the US? If there is a change, what will be the main point?
There will be not many new barriers and the majors are self-defence and antidumping cases. Vietnamese exporters must be good at product valuation to set suitable prices in the US market to avoid being labelled dumping or subsidy. They also need to collaborate with US importers to show defence evidences.
If there are changes in the US-Vietnam relationship, they mainly involve in implementation, not trade liberalisation. US authorities used such measures as antidumping and anti-subsidy cases. Besides, the US is concentrating its trans-Pacific cooperative relations. This is a monolith to expand US-Vietnam ties.
The Obama administration follows protectionist democracy. How will this policy affect Vietnam as well as Vietnamese exporters?
In many cases, a democracy administration advocates trade protectionism. The Clinton administration is an example. Maybe, the administration supports protectionism to win votes during presidency campaigns but they might take more practical actions and they also advocate commercial liberalisation. All these can be found since the Uruguay Round. With the current Doha Round, we hope there will be trans-Pacific trade liberalisation. We expect Vietnam to enjoy the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and market status recognition.
However, the Democratic Party dignifies the rights and interests of working people and they pay very much attention to intellectual property. However, intellectual property violations are easily seen in Vietnam and this is the reason for the unlikelihood of gaining GSP although Vietnam satisfies basic criteria.
I believe that Vietnam and US will grasp all opportunities to boost bilateral trade ties.
Vietnamese
