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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organisation. [199565] Mr. MacShane: The Government strongly support Vietnam's accession into the WTO. It believes the WTO delivers benefits for all its members, particularly developing countries. We are pleased that on 9 October the European Commission, which has exclusive competence in such bilateral negotiations on behalf of the EU, agreed bilateral access aspects of the WTO accession for Vietnam. The EU is Vietnam's biggest trading partner and is one of the first to settle bilateral access negotiations with Vietnam. The Government will continue to support Vietnam's accession as it seeks to conclude bilateral negotiations with a number of other important WTO members (including China, Japan, Australia and the US). The Department for International Development is supporting analytical work on the accession tariff reduction options and possible implications for policies, including social and poverty impacts, in Vietnam. Vietnam's terms for acceding to the WTO will be based upon the outcome of these bilateral negotiations together with agreement reached at the multilateral level within the WTO Working Party. If agreement is reached at both these levels then we hope Vietnam will accede to the WTO after the organisation's ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

199565; 428 c229W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

EU external trade Trade Trade agreements World Trade Organization Foreign trade Vietnam

Link

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