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US, Vietnam sign landmark market-opening pact

Deal to help Hanoi enter WTO, win NTR
WASHINGTON. July 14: Former enemies the United States and Vietnam signed a landmark trade agreement yesterday. clearing the way for normal trade relations for the first time since the Vietnam War and boosting communist Hanoi's bid to join the World Trade Organisation, reports Reuters.
The agreement, signed by US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Vietnam’s Trade Minister Vu Khoan after four years of negotiations, would reduce tariffs on goods and services, protect intellectual property and improve tn-vestment relations between the two countries.
'From the bitter past, we plant the seeds of a better future.” President Bill Clinton told reporters on the White House South Lawn before returning to Camp David. Maryland, for Middle East peace summit.
"This agreement is one more reminder that former adversaries can come together to find common ground in a way that benefits all their people, to let go of the past and embrace the future, to forgive and to reconcile." he added, with Arizona Republican Sen. Jon McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent 5-1/2 years in a Hanoi prison camp, at his side.
The trade agreement was one of the most important economic milestones for Vietnam since the country embarked on market-oriented reforms in the late 1980s. and could help Hanoi in its efforts to Join the Geneva-based WTO. though Barshefsky said accession was a number of years oft .
It also marked a major step toward completing the normalisation process that began on July 1 1. 1995. when Clinton extended diplomatic ties to Vietnam. America lost 58.000 Ilves in the Vietnam War. which
ended in 1975
The trade agreement must still be approved by the US Congress. Though Republican congressional leaders support closer trade ties with Vietnam, it remained to be seen whether lawmakers would approve the pact before this year's abbreviated legislative session ends.
In terms of commerce, the trade agreement would mean far more for Vietnam than for 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 fell 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 was harder to gauge. Under the pact. Vietnam agreed to cut tariffs In most cases by one-third to one-half on a wide range of products, from toiletries to mobile phones to pasta.
US companies like shoemaker Nike Inc. and agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. stand to benefit from Increased access to the Vietnamese marketplace, but analysts said the gains may be slow to materialise since Vietnam would reduce trade barriers over a three-to-seven year period in many cases.
Thursday's signing came one year after Washington announced an "agreement in principle" with Vietnam, only to have Hanoi back away, arguing that certain provisions were unfair.