U.S., Vietnam trade cooperation warms

   The Obama administration said it’s looking forward to stronger trade relations with Vietnam through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
   Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis on Wednesday completed a three-day visit to Hanoi, where he discussed outstanding issues with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh, and ministers and vice-ministers at Vietnam’s ministries of Planning and Investment, Environment and Natural Resources, and Agriculture and Rural Development. He also met with the president of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, chairman of Vietnam’s Economic Committee, the Prime Minister’s chief advisor on TPP, and with U.S. businesses looking to expand their reach in Vietnam through the TPP.
   “Here in Vietnam, we have reaffirmed our commitment to continuing rapid progress in the TPP talks, and to working with Vietnam to get to the ambitious outcomes that are the core of this groundbreaking effort,” Marantis said. “My discussions with Vietnamese leaders have focused on meaningful market access in Vietnam for both goods and services, as well as the importance of robust and fully enforceable labor and environmental provisions – which the United States has been clear would be necessary for a final agreement.”
   There has been tremendous growth in the U.S.-Vietnam trade relationship since the conclusion of a Bilateral Trade Agreement in December 2001. Two-way trade has grown since then from about $1 billion then to $26 billion last year, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
   U.S. exports to Vietnam increased 7.3 percent in 2012, with top products being machinery and agricultural products such as beef, pork and poultry as well as soybeans, cereals and cotton. In 2012, the United States exported $1.7 billion dollars worth of agricultural products to Vietnam, making the Southeast Asian country the 16th largest U.S. agricultural export market.