Vietnam reports trade talks close to completion as US says negotiations continue
Hanoi has sent Washington a final agreement text, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc said, after negotiations lasting more than a year.
A trade agreement with Washington is close to being finalised, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc told a business forum in Hanoi. He said Vietnam had delivered the final agreement text to the US, while American officials indicated that discussions remained under way.
Jennifer Wicks, the US ambassador to Vietnam, said both governments were continuing negotiations over reciprocal trade. David Fogel, US assistant secretary of commerce, expressed hope for continued cooperation towards an agreement. The talks have run for more than a year.
Tuc sought US support for stable and sustainable market access for Vietnam's goods. He also asked Washington to assess Vietnam objectively and in a balanced way under its Section 301 investigation, which includes industrial overcapacity and intellectual property rights.
Vietnamese customs data recorded a US$122.6 billion trade surplus with the US during the year's first three quarters. The US is Vietnam's largest export destination. Fogel said no other trading partner accounted for a larger US deficit and called on Vietnamese businesses to expand their investment in America.
Wicks called for changes to Vietnamese data-protection regulations to draw investment and enable efficient use of new technologies. American technology companies have repeatedly warned that restrictions on moving data across borders discourage investment in Vietnam.
She also sought greater predictability in energy policy and stability in pricing rules to support foreign investment. Vietnam has spent years negotiating electricity purchase prices with prospective foreign investors and has applied retrospective reductions to price subsidies for some renewable-energy investors.
