According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Vietnam, the EU Council approved the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in writing on March 30, 2020. Accordingly, the EU has completed the internal approval of its agreement, and the EVFTA agreement will officially come into effect after the approval of the Vietnamese National Assembly.
This agreement is the second free trade agreement signed between the EU and a Southeast Asian country (note: the first country is Singapore). As for Vietnam, the agreement is currently being consulted by government members. If the Vietnamese Congress can pass it and notify the EU as scheduled, the agreement can take effect from July 1, 2020.
According to Liang Huangtai, Director of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance, in order for the agreement to take effect and be implemented as expected, all ministries must speed up relevant preparations at this stage, including Priority should be given to improving various legal provisions, especially the origin specifications; for each FTA, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has promulgated its origin implementation announcement. Currently, the draft EVFTA origin implementation announcement is also soliciting opinions from relevant units.
EVFTA is a high-standard agreement and is expected to help accelerate and expand the scale of Vietnam-EU trade and investment cooperation, and bring many business opportunities to businesses on both sides. . It is expected that after the EVFTA comes into effect, 65% of the taxes and duties on the EU’s exports to Vietnam will be abolished, and the remaining taxes will be gradually eliminated within 10 years. On the contrary, 71% of the taxes and duties on Vietnam’s exports to the EU will be reduced to zero, and the rest will be gradually eliminated in the next 7 years. abolition.
