The signatories included European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom and Vietnamese Minister for Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang. The two sides reached the free trade agreement after more than two years of negotiations. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, will lift almost all tariff barriers and open the door for European businesses to make further inroads into the Vietnamese market. The trade pact covers various fields from goods, services and investment to government procurement.
The EVFTA is the first trade deal that the EU has signed with a developing country. The EU is the sixth largest foreign investor in Vietnam. Over the past decade, bilateral trade has increased by 200 percent to reach 28 billion euros at present. Technical and legal procedures are being completed to submit the EVFTA to the European Parliament, with the pact expected to take effect in late 2017 or early 2018.
