Brussels (VNA) – Vietnam is determined to build an open trade andinvestment environment and welcomes all European investors and entrepreneurs todo business in the country, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran QuocKhanh has said.

The official made the statement in Brusselson September 18 at a high-level conference on the EU-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement (EVFTA), which was attended by nearly 100 delegates who are experts,entrepreneurs and representatives of organisations from the EU and Vietnam.

Speakers at the event provided participantswith an insight into the agreement and the benefits it will bring to the twosides’ enterprises in fields ranging from services, trade, investment andintellectual property to e-commerce.

Peter Berz, Head of Unit in the DirectorateGeneral for Trade of the European Commission responsible for trade relationswith Southeast Asian nations, said the EVFTA and the Investment ProtectionAgreement (IPA), once signed and brought into effect, will become a model forFTAs between Vietnam and other partners in the future.

Ambassador Vu Anh Quang, head of the VietnamDelegation to the EU, stated Vietnam and the EU shared a common view onmultilateralism in maintaining relations and international law.

He said the EVFTA will create a legalframework for free trade between the two sides and become part of theEU-Vietnam Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation(PCA).

Axel Goethals, CEO of the European Institutefor Asian Studies (EIAS), said up to 99 percent of EU tariffs will be removedfor Vietnamese products thanks to the EVFTA.

Therefore, the agreement is expected toraise the volume of exports to the EU by a third, and open up a new chapter forbilateral trade, he added.

Deputy Minister Khanh stressed theVietnamese Government is preparing a plan on the enforcement of the EVFTA, andis willing to work with the EU towards trade liberalisation.

He affirmed that the EU is a trusted partnerof Vietnam.

Legal reviews for a free trade agreementbetween Vietnam and the EU started after negotiations on the deal concluded onDecember 2, 2015. However, the EU changed its regulations on the process ofapproving FTAs, with the division of contents related to investment protectionand investor-state dispute settlement made into a separate deal calledInvestment Protection Agreement (IPA).

In April 2018, the agreement wassuccessfully divided into the EVFTA and the IPA.

On June 25, 2018, the two sides finished thelegal review process for the EVFTA and agreed on the investment protection deal

The EVFTA has now been finalised after aseries of efforts to solve technical problems. It is being translated into the 24official languages of the European Union (EU) and sent to member countries for consideration.

The EU is the third largest trade partner ofVietnam and one of the country’s two biggest export markets. Two-way trade grew12 folds to 50.4 billion USD in 2017 from only 4.1 billion USD in 2000.

On September 18, representatives from the Ministryof Industry and Trade attended a press conference to introduce the benefits tobe brought by the EVFTA to EU and Vietnamese businesses.

Deputy Minister Khanh affirmed that theagreement will help Vietnam have a firmer legal foundation, emphasising thecountry is willing to improve its policies and laws.-VNA