Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh met with his counterparts from Singapore, Indonesia and the Republic of Korea on the sidelines of the 50th ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM-50) Meeting and Related Meetings held in Singapore from August 29 to September 2 to discuss bilateral and multilateral trade cooperation.
At his meeting with Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing, the two sides agreed to exert more efforts to strike trade balance through key measures such as supporting Vietnamese businesses to connect with Singapore’s retail supermarket systems and remove difficulties to resume exports of Vietnamese farm produce to Singapore.
The ministers suggested connecting the two sides’ goods exchanges and attracting Singapore’s investment in Vietnam to produce commodities for export back to Singapore and third countries while enhancing support for Vietnam’s trade promotion activities in Singapore.
During a meeting between Minister Tran Tuan Anh and Indonesia’s Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukit, the two sides discussed measures to boost trade cooperation for rice and energy commodities as well as remove current barriers to mobile phones and flat-rolled steel imported from Vietnam.
While meeting with RoK Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un Gyu, the Vietnamese official affirmed that Vietnam will closely work with the RoK and other countries to soon complete negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and sign the agreement.
Meanwhile, Tran Tuan Anh and Deputy US Trade Representative for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Industrial Competitiveness Jeffery Gerrish exchanged economic-trade cooperation orientations in the coming time towards reinforcing the current mechanisms such as the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in addition to promoting new mechanisms to address issues of mutual concern, including the trade deficit with the US.
Vietnam proposed the US pay more attention to the licence of import for some Vietnamese fruits (like mangoes) and consider appropriate application of catfish inspection programme as well as restrict trade protection measures and recognise Vietnam as a market economy.
