Vietnam to continue implementing WTO's agreement on technical barriers to trade

Vietnam will continue to implement the agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) in lines with its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to a statement on Friday.

The statement was made by Tran Viet Thanh, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology (MST) at the conference held here on Friday to review implementation of the TBT during 2005-2010, and plans for the 2011-2016 period.

To implement the TBT during 2011-2016 will be extremely necessary for Vietnam to repair the shortcomings left over from the 2005-2010 period. It will also contribute to implementing the country's socio-economic policies to ensure the legal rights of the consumers, on the basis of enhancing capability of Vietnamese agencies in executing the rights and obligations in accordance with the TBT and for the legitimate rights and benefits of the country, Thanh said.

According to Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Quality Measurements and Standards Vu Van Dien, implementation of the TBT during 2011-2016 will focus in perfecting the legal basis for activities on technical barriers in trade, setting up technical solutions to apply to import and export activities in lines with TBT agreement and Vietnam's laws, supporting enterprises in applying technical measures to enhance production efficiency and promote imports and exports, among others.

Vietnam's implementation of the TBT during 2005-2010 has increased the national standards rate in conformity with the international ones, from 25 percent in 2005 to nearly 40 percent at present, and ranked Vietnam among middle-level countries having national standards in conformity with international ones.

TBT is one of WTO's 14 agreements on commodities trade, which define obligations and principles for the members to follow when setting up or executing technical measures in trade activities. When joining WTO, Vietnam pledged to follow TBT requirements without any transition period.

In addition, to increase the forecast and transparency, the country pledged to release regulations to concretize regulations related to technical standards and evaluating process for conformity.

Source: Xinhua