The first round of the negotiations of a free trade agreement between
Vietnam and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan
took place in Hanoi on March 29.
Vietnamese
Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and Trade Minister of the
Eurasian Economic Commission Andrey Slepnev signed a joint notice on the
session between the two sides.
Both
sides were unanimous in the scope and areas of the agreement that need
to be adjusted such as commercialisation, service trade, investment,
regulations and economic cooperation.
The two
sides stressed that the agreement will be in line with the regulations
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), taking due consideration of each
nation’s sensitive areas and the development gap between them.
Two-way trade between Vietnam and the union stood at 2.7 billion USD in 2012.
The two chief negotiators said that the FTA will help the sides
achieve the goal of raising bilateral trade turnover to 10 billion USD
before 2020 as set by their leaders.
They also agreed to promote the politic, economic, trade and investment relations between the four countries.-VNA