The trade agreement with Europe will be signed on June 30

At the Northern Key Economic Region Development Conference on June 25 in Hung Yen, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that on June 30, the Vietnam-European Union Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is expected to be signed.

On the same afternoon, the European Council (EC) approved the decision to sign the Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam.

The Prime Minister assessed that Vietnam has participated in many FTAs and the economy has benefited a lot from these agreements.

`EVFTA has a particularly important meaning for Vietnam, a great opportunity for Vietnam to have the conditions for deeper integration to participate in the regional and global markets,` the Prime Minister emphasized.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

During a business trip to Europe last week, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh had working sessions with counterparts from Romania, Italy, Belgium… to promote the signing and ratification of EVFTA.

In the middle of last year, Vietnam and the EU agreed to split the EVFTA into two agreements, with the main part of the old agreement being the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the remaining part being the Investment Protection Agreement (IPA).

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh once commented that after the agreement is signed, Vietnam’s investment and business environment will improve, and investment from the EU is expected to grow further.

According to the agreement, over 99% of Vietnam’s exports to the EU will have import taxes eliminated immediately after the agreement takes effect, or after a short period of time.

65% of taxes on exports from the EU to Vietnam will disappear as soon as EVFTA takes effect, while the rest will be gradually reduced over 10 years.

EVFTA will also reduce many existing non-tariff barriers to trade with Vietnam, opening up services in Vietnam and the public procurement market to EU companies, while the IPA will strengthen the protection of trade accounts.

As one of the new generation bilateral agreements, EVFTA will also include important provisions on intellectual property protection, investment liberalization and sustainable development.

Vietnam also has the opportunity to become an area that strongly attracts EU investment and is a transit point, connecting EU trade and investment activities in the ASEAN region.