Negotiations over FTA with Vietnam advance
Fish Information and Services | Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Negotiations over FTA with Vietnam advance
By Analia Murias
Government representatives from Chile and Vietnam have concluded the seventh round of negotiations for signing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Official sources reported that the meeting had made progress on tariff liberalization, rules of origin and customs procedures.
Participating was the Deputy Director of the Directorate of International Economic Relations (Direcon) of Chile and Chief Negotiator of the agreement, Paulina Nazal, and the Director General of the Department for the Americas Trade Policy of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, Nguyen Duy Khien.
Chile proposed, among other things, a reduction in the list of exceptions under negotiation, which was hosted by the Vietnamese for further analysis, Nazzal said.
"We presented a proposal to reduce the list of Chilean products that were under the exclusion list of preferences, to present them in a category that has any kind of commercial gain. Among these products are those which are privileged that we consider as priorities for Chile, within the framework agreed between the public and private sector," said the head of the Chilean negotiating team.
Under the FTA, it is being negotiated whether or not more than 80 per cent of the total volume exported from Chile to the Vietnamese market will enjoy some kind of tariff preference.
In relation to rules of origin, both sides exchanged proposals that they discussed in earlier negotiations, related to the specific rules, as well as advancing with regards to customs procedures.
The eighth round of negotiations will be held in the first half of 2011 in Hanoi.
By all means, and if necessary, delegates from both countries can consider the possibility of a ’mini round’ of negotiations in Santiago, Chile, in the framework of the V Meeting for the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPA), in February.
In 2009, Chile exported products to the Vietnamese market for USD 104 million, ie 7.6 per cent more than in 2008 and 50 per cent more than in 2005.
For its part, Vietnam exported USD 126 million worth of products to the South American country, 56 per cent higher than in 2008, reports the EFE news agency.
