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US, Vietnam ready to sign key trade pact: Sources
WASHINGTON. July 13: After more than four years of negotiations. former enemies the United States and Vietnam plan to sign a landmark trade pact later this week or early next week, trade sources said yester-lay. reports Reuters
The market-opening agreement was reached in principle after talks between US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Vietnam's 1 ade Minister Vu Khoan. the sources said. Officials are now fine-tuning a Vietnamese translation and preparing the final documents for signing.
Barshefsky's office declined to comment.
The agreement would reduce tariffs on goods and services, protect intellectual property and improve Investment relations between the two countries, combatants in the Vietnam War that ended in 1975. Further details were not immediately available.
A date has yet to be set for the signing ceremony due to President Bill Clinton's tight
schedule, but US officials hoped It could be held on Friday. The Eresident is taking part in a igh-stakes Middle East peace summit this week in the Camp David retreat in Maryland, and sources said it was unclear when he could break away.
"We're waiting for word on Clinton." a trade source said, adding that US Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson would return to Washington to take part in the ceremony.
Once signed, the agreement would be one of the most important economic milestones for Vietnam since it embarked on market-oriented reforms in the late 1980s. and could boost Hanot’s bld to Join the Genevabased World Trade Organisation.
It would also mark a major step toward completing the normalisation process that began five years ago on July 1 1. 1995. when Clinton extended diplomatic ties to Vietnam.
In terms of commerce, the trade pact would mean far more fok Vietnam tharkfor the United
States. With Congress' approval. Hanoi would win Washington’s coveted normal trade relations (NTR) status.
According to a recent World Bank report, the agreement could more than double Vietnam's exports to the United States to $768 million from $338 million in 1996.
It could also boost foreign investment In Vietnam, which has fallen to around $500 million a year from peaks of $2.8 billion in 1996 and 1997 when Hanoi was viewed as Asia's next dynamic tiger economy.
For the United States the impact is harder to gauge. US companies like shoemaker Nike Inc. and agribusiness giant ('argill Inc. stand to benefit from increased access to the Vietnamese marketplace, but analysts said the gains may be slow to materialise.
The signing would come nearly 12 months after Washington announced an "agreement in principle." only to have Hanoi back away, arguing that certain pAiyxsious were unfair.
Analysts believe Vietnam balked last year because it feared the loss of economic control that would come with market opening. The delay darkened the mood among investors, fed up with Vietnam's closed economy and high costs.
But US officials and business leaders said Vietnam was emboldened to complete the pact in part because of US House of Representatives approval of a trade agreement with China. Beijing is expected to join the WTO later this year, and Vietnam has similar aspirations.