Most viewed articles
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has pledged that Vietnam will proactively collaborate with the United States to conclude negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade accord.
Trong was speaking of this at a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in Washington, D.C. on Monday afternoon (local time) as part of his official five-day trip to the U.S. at the invitation of the U.S. administration.
“International integration is a consistent policy of Vietnam,” Trong was quoted by Vietnam News Agency as saying. He said Vietnam’s participation in the TPP negotiations is clear evidence.
Trong said Vietnam will actively work with the U.S. and other participating countries to wrap up the negotiations soon.
Trong noted that among the 12 countries involved in the negotiations, Vietnam is the least developed economy and will have to amend a lot of laws and regulations to join the trade pact. Therefore, he called for the U.S. to consider Vietnam’s current stage of development and assist this ASEAN nation in the negotiation process.
Trong congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama on the trade promotion authority (TPA), also known as the ‘fast-track’ authority, to finish the TPP talks quickly.
Froman said the TPP would bring many trade and investment opportunities for all the parties concerned, including businesses and people of the U.S. and Vietnam, once it is signed.
Froman confirmed the U.S. would continue to back Vietnam’s development and further integration into the global economy.
Froman believed that Trong’s visit to the U.S. would foster relations between the U.S. and Vietnam, according to Vietnam News Agency. He spoke highly of expanding economic and trade cooperation between the two countries after 20 years of the normalization of diplomatic ties.
The Party chief hoped the U.S. would open its market wider for Vietnamese goods and recognize Vietnam as a market economy as the country has get involved in a comprehensive trade accord like the TPP.
The countries getting involved in the TPP are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam.
On the same day, Trong attended a ceremony held by Boeing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, VA to hand over the new-generation plane Boeing 787-9 to Vietnam Airlines.
Pham Viet Thanh, chairman of Vietnam Airlines Corporation, said the first Dreamliner would arrive in Vietnam at the end of this month and be used for the national flag carrier’s Hanoi-HCMC route before its Vietnam-London route.
At the ceremony, Boeing also inked a cooperation agreement to help Vietnam Airlines expand its aircraft fleet and operations.
The U.S. aircraft manufacturer introduced its new aircraft models Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner and Boeing 777-8x to Vietnam Airlines. The Vietnamese airline will consider these aircraft as part of a strategy to modernize its fleet.
According to Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam Airlines will become the first Asian airline to operate the two modern planes Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and Airbus A350-900 XWB.
Representatives from the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the U.S. Department of Commerce agreed that closer links between airlines of the two countries would help bolster economic, trade, investment and tourism ties between the two nations.
Previously, the Party chief and his entourage visited the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring the third U.S. president who was the primary drafter of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, according to the Government’s portal chinhphu.vn.
Source: The SaigonTimes