Seminar discusses best utilization of free trade deals

At the seminar, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the Centre for WTO and Economic Integration under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) gave an overview of the trade commitments between Vietnam and China, with a focus on the upgrade of the ASEAN-China FTA (ACFTA) and the contents of the AHKFTA.

Regarding Vietnam-China trade ties, Trang said Vietnam-China Border Trade Agreement can be considered the latest trade deal of ASEAN and Vietnam with

foreign partners. The agreement paves the way for the trade facilitation of and creates a new opportunity for trade and investment between Vietnam and ASEAN countries, and an easier access to Hong Kong which is viewed as a particularly important administrative region of China

Although not many opportunities for tariffs or investment conditions are presented by these agreements, they can provide more favorable conditions for Vietnam to bolster its exports to Hong Kong, which is an important gateway for the country to enter the Chinese market, Trang noted while suggesting Vietnamese enterprises should take full advantage of the opportunities, advantages provided by these FTAs.

According to Ms Trang, in order to enjoy benefits from these trade deals, businesses need to fully grasp information about the opportunities and interests and find competitive advantages in order to compete with goods from China or Hong Kong. For example, if their products are at competitive prices, our products must be highly competitive in terms of quality, she noted.

Ms Bui Kim Thuy, a representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import-Export Department suggested Vietnamese businesses should master technical solutions to fully exploit the benefits of the ACFTA and AHKFTA and warned about risks and preventative measures when dealing contracts with Chinese businesses.

Ms Thuy held that to enjoy preferential tariffs from these FTAs, businesses should fully identify Harmonized System (HS) codes; goods must be subject to obey rules of origin; enterprises need to have Preferential Certificate of Origin (CO), which is the most important legal basis to identify where goods come from, and they need to source raw materials and boost production in the FTA member economies.