The Republic of Korea (RoK) has been considered one of the most potential export markets for Vietnam’s aquatic products, especially after the two countries sign a free trade agreement in May.

Over 30 countries interested in signing free trade agreement with EEU Several countries have offered to create free-trade zones with the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, Tengrinews reports citing Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency. Among them are Zimbabwe, Jordan, Syria, Mongolia and Albania.

HCMC – The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the HCMC government co-held a seminar last week to discuss measures for local firms to benefit from Vietnam’s global integration and free trade agreements (FTAs) with partners. Vietnam has signed 10 bilateral and multilateral FTAs and is expected to wrap up negotiations over two comprehensive trade accords later this year, heard the seminar. Therefore, local enterprises need support from government agencies to make the most of such FTAs.

Canada and Ukraine have announced that they have concluded their negotiations, ongoing since 2010, for a Free Trade Agreement. The Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on July 14, 2015, represents an important milestone in the Canada–Ukraine bilateral relationship. It should generate significant commercial benefits for Canada while supporting the reform and development efforts of the Government of Ukraine.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently hosted a conference in Panama to raise awareness of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) among Latin American parliamentarians. The event gathered over 30 parliamentarians from all over Latin America. It highlighted the potential benefits of the Agreement for the region and underlined the need for speedy ratification and ambitious implementation.

Vietnam will be able to access a huge market of 3.4 billion people when it joins the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Countries in RCEP will have a combined GDP of USD 21 trillion, accounting for 29 percent of the world's GDP, said Nguyen Anh Duong, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).

The signing of the Vietnam-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in 2001 marked the start of booming trade between the two countries, which hit 35 billion USD by the end of 2014 from only 1.51 billion USD in 2001.  Twenty years since the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two nations, Vietnam is now the leading ASEAN exporter to US with a 13-fold export turnover increase while the US is the seventh largest foreign investor in Vietnam. 

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has asked the Ministry of Health to impose stricter measures to manage the import and export for food and medicines because this is directly concerned with the sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures Laos has committed to. The Lao government looks sets to benefit fromincreased trade with regional and international partners after the country secured membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2013 and shall join the Asean Economic Community (AEC) at the end of this year.

HA NOI (VNS) — Several domestic and foreign-invested cotton projects are rushing to begin operating in anticipation of competing across borders after Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) go into affect. Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that total investment of FDI in the country was US$5.49 billion for the first half of the year. Of this, the investment in the garment and textile sector was $1.12 billion.

A group of House members in a letter this week to Canada's ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doar urged Canada to allow more imports of U.S. dairy products as an outcome of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks. If Canada cannot provide more dairy market access, the letter said, it risks being left out of the Pacific Rim trade agreement now in the final stages of negotiation.