The first ministerial-level meeting of the Viet Nam-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council convened in Washington DC on December 17.

The meeting was co-chaired by Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of Viet Nam’s TIFA Council, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office, and President of the US ’s TIFA Council, Ambassador and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

At the meeting, the Vietnamese side asked the US to exclude products that are not made by the US from the list of monitored goods and announce its monitoring mechanism and US process of automatic proceedings (if any).

The US side was also urged to apply the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Regulation for Viet Nam’s agricultural and processed goods and send experts to help Viet Nam complete a GSP file to enable the regulation to work for the country’s goods in 2008.

Viet Nam asked the US to give consultations for Viet Nam to get US recognition as a market economy. Up to now, more than 20 countries worldwide have recognised Viet Nam as market economy.

Viet Nam also asked for the US’s more technical assistance in compiling legal documents as well as helping raise the country’s capacity in law enforcement, and also good conditions for Viet Nam’s export of fruit, especially dragon fruit, rambutan, longan and litchi, to the US.

For its part, the US side brought several issues for discussion including US companies’ rights to do business in Viet Nam, intellectual property, US beef export to Viet Nam, contents of a draft Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) which is scheduled for negotiations in 2008 and gas exports under Chevron project.

Both sides agreed to launch their agreements to develop bilateral cooperation and support Vietnamese and US enterprises to boost ties for the benefits of the two countries.

Through the TIFA Council, the two sides will build sustainable cooperative ties and a close co-ordinating mechanism, especially in senior official meetings (SOMs) in addressing trade and investment problems that may arise between the two countries.

The US is expected to be Viet Nam’s largest trade and investment partner with two-way trade value reaching 15-18 billion USD by 2010.

Viet Nam will increase the import of hi-tech equipment from the US and the US investment in the Southeast Asian country is expected to exceed 10 billion USD. (VNA)