The UK and EU have just resumed negotiations over a post-Brexit deal on free trade. Major stumbling blocks over issues like road haulage, fishing rights and state subsidies will need to be ironed out quickly if a deal is to be ratified in time for the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

Bangladesh needs to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK if it hopes to increase bilateral trade and private sector investment between the two countries, according to various local businessmen.

In the first week of July 2020, Indonesia and Hong Kong entered a new phase of economic cooperation. Indonesia finally joined other ASEAN member countries in ratifying the ASEAN–Hong Kong, China Free Trade Area (AHKFTA).

The wood processing industry is to become a spearhead economic sector by 2025, posting export turnover of about 20 billion USD to contribute to socio-economic development and stabilise the livelihoods of people living in forested areas.

Like other industries, the leather and footwear industry has also encountered many difficulties due to the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, according to many experts, with the pandemic being controlled fairly well and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) taking effect from the beginning of August, the leather and footwear industry will recover soon.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has said that seafood exports to Europe have seen many positive signs since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect at the beginning of this month.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has entered the legal scrubbing phase and is expected to be signed soon without India, the Trade Ministry has said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade, rice exports to the EU (except the UK) totaled US$10.9 million in 2019, up 92.4 percent from 2018. These relatively modest exports stem from the customs duties of 175, 65 and 211 euro per tonne that the EU imposed on Vietnamese de-husked, broken and paddy rice, respectively.

In the first months of the year, the global economy declined due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, severely effecting Vietnam’s export activities. Although exports in June have seen positive signs compared to the previous period, the recovery process will certainly take a long time.

• On August 1st, 2020, the first protocol to amend the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) between Japan and five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), consisting of Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam came into effect. • The AJCEP came into force in December 2008 and covers trade in goods and services, investment, and economic cooperation. • The protocol adds provisions concerning trade in services, movement of business people and investments, and is expected to strengthen reciprocal economic ties in wide-ranging fields between Japan and ASEAN countries.