On July 7, local time, U.S. President Obama met with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong at the White House. The two sides discussed issues including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and bilateral defense cooperation. Obama urgently needs to complete the TPP negotiations before the end of his term. Considering the upcoming domestic election in the United States and the complexity of the U.S. judicial process, July is the most critical month for Obama to conclude the TPP negotiations; after the U.S. Congress recently passed the Trade Authorization Act (TPA) Later, Nguyen Phu Trong’s high-profile visit to the United States was widely regarded as a significant sign that the United States and Vietnam were promoting the completion of TPP negotiations. During his visit to the United States, Nguyen Phu Trong said that Vietnam would cooperate with other countries, including the United States, to accelerate the completion of the TPP negotiation process and conclude the negotiations as soon as possible. As part of the return, Obama promised Nguyen Phu Trong to visit Vietnam at some time in the future; however, it should be noted that since the U.S. TPP negotiating team adheres to the “yarnforward” principle, its negotiating team requires Vietnam to reduce its ties to China. Textile imports. Nguyen Phu Trong said during this visit to the United States that considering that Vietnam is the country with the lowest level of development in the TPP negotiations and needs to review the legal system when joining the trade agreement, it is hoped that the United States can take Vietnam’s economic development into account in the TPP negotiations. development level, providing the necessary flexibility. Kurt Tong, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for economic and commercial affairs at the U.S. State Department, pointed out in a recent interview that by joining the TPP negotiations, if successful, Vietnam will demonstrate that its economy can establish regulations for state-owned enterprises so that they can This is a demonstration of the inability to gain comparative advantage from trade agreements. Obama urgently needs the TPP to complete its political legacy. After the U.S. Congress passed the TPA, the Obama administration received further authorization and accelerated the pace of completing the TPP negotiations. Tong pointed out in a recent interview that the TPP negotiations will end soon. The reason why he did not give a specific date is that setting a deadline for negotiations is not a good strategy.
The reporter learned from the Office of the United States Trade Representative that the United States will hold TPP trade minister-level negotiations from July 28th to 31st, and previously held TPP chief negotiator-level negotiations from July 24th to 27th. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative stated that this ministerial meeting provides an important opportunity to negotiate base stations and work hard to conclude the negotiations. Among the 12 countries participating in the TPP negotiations, the United States and Vietnam have some of the most difficult differences: The TPP has always touted itself as a high-quality trade agreement, but the United States and Vietnam have different views on state-owned enterprises, environmental protection, and labor standards. Out of sync. At the same time, U.S.-Vietnam economic and trade relations have been developing rapidly: they have grown by more than 20% in the past three years. In 2014, bilateral trade between Vietnam and the United States reached US$35 billion. The United States has become Vietnam’s largest trade exporter. This figure will increase in 2020. It has the potential to grow to $57 billion. However, the U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam reached a record high of around US$24 billion last year, and the U.S., which has always lacked tolerance for trade deficits, also hopes to use the TPP to improve the current trade situation between the U.S. and Vietnam. According to Vietnamese media reports, Nguyen Phu Trong also met with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman during his stay in Washington. During the meeting, he emphasized Vietnam’s efforts to integrate into the regional and global economy, pointing out that Vietnam’s participation in TPP negotiations is an example. He also asked the United States to support Vietnam during the negotiation process. Froman said that once the TPP is signed, both Vietnamese and American business people will have access to trade and investment opportunities. Nguyen Phu Trong said that Vietnam will actively coordinate with the United States to speed up negotiations on the relevant agreement. According to US polls, Vietnam’s domestic support rate for participating in TPP negotiations is very high, close to 90%. According to the latest US Pew Research Center survey of some people in 9 of the 12 countries participating in the TPP negotiations, the results show that Vietnam has the highest support rate at 89%. At the same time, according to a report by HSBC, the TPP is a very good trade agreement for the small countries participating in the TPP negotiations. They can use the TPP to enter large markets such as the United States and Japan. If they join the TPP, they can Promote Vietnam’s GDP growth by 13 percentage points.
The “Start with Yarn” regulations may have an impact on China’s textile industry. However, it is not easy for Vietnam to obtain substantial tariff reductions from the United States, Japan and other countries in the TPP. Among them, the US negotiating team has focused on Vietnam’s textile-related industries. Currently, Vietnam is the second largest exporter of clothing and footwear to the United States (the first is China). In 2014, Vietnam’s clothing and footwear exports to the United States were US$13.1 billion. In this negotiation, the U.S. negotiating team hopes to prompt Vietnam to import more textile raw materials from the United States, so as to promote the development of the U.S. textile industry and create more jobs; this caused the U.S. negotiating team to use the “start with yarn” principle and insist on Vietnam is required to significantly reduce its textile imports from China. “Starting from yarn” means that starting from yarn, it must be produced in the TPP area. To be more detailed, for garment manufacturing, it starts from upstream spinning, followed by weaving, knitting and other fabrics, to dyeing, finishing and other treatments, to downstream cutting, sewing, knitting and shaping to make clothes. TPP’s “starting from yarn” “All are strictly required to be manufactured within the TPP area. According to historical data, the textiles produced in Vietnam can only meet one-fifth of its domestic demand, and it needs to import textiles worth approximately US$4.7 billion from China every year. The United States proposed that the United States and MexicoBoth countries are major textile producers, and Vietnam can choose not to import from China, but from the United States or Mexico (both TPP negotiating countries); however, the US media said in a report that Julia Hughes, chairman of the American Apparel Industry Association ) pointed out that the U.S. textile industry does not have the ability to meet Vietnam’s demand, and Vietnamese manufacturers still need to import products from China. However, countries including China have recently begun to increase their efforts to build textile production plants in Vietnam. According to Vietnamese domestic media reports, in the first half of 2015, Vietnam had a record new FDI investment of US$4.28 billion in the manufacturing and processing industries alone, accounting for 76.2% of the overall FDI inflows during the same period. On the U.S. side, because it has been criticized by major garment manufacturers for not understanding the global supply chain, the U.S. negotiating team is also considering whether to use the “lack of supply” principle as a supplement. This principle will allow those who are “commercially unable to operate in the United States or Raw materials obtained by other TPP countries are outsourced to non-TPP countries and used in products in the TPP area, but this will not be tax-free.” However, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative emphasized that this principle of flexibility will be limited because the United States does not want to be It looks like the door is open to China again.
