Canada affirms strong trade ties with Vietnam (Photo: Vietnam Briefing) Hanoi (VNA) - A comprehensive tradeagreement between Canada and ASEAN will help Vietnam fully tap opportunitiesoffered by free trade agreements and promote the positive impacts of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP) in areas of common interests, a Canadian official has said.
Kendal Hembroff, General Director for Trade Policy and Negotiations at the Global Affairs Canada (GAC), made the statement at a webinar hosted by the Canada-Vietnam Trade Council on October 1.
She highlighted strong trade ties between Canada and Vietnam, saying that theserelations were built on the foundation of good people-to-people exchanges.
Vietnam is currently Canada's largest trading partner in the Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with a two-way trade hitting 7.98 billionCAD (6.01 billion USD) in 2019.
After one year of implementing the CPTPP, Vietnam's export turnover to Canadaincreased by 29.7 percent, while Canada's export value to Vietnam also rosestrongly, especially for meat and for cereal which recorded 230.7 and 61.2percent growth.
Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador toCanada Pham Cao Phong spotlighted the fact that while the world’s trade flows decreasedsharply in the first six months of 2020, Vietnam-Canada trade still kept itsupward trend though it grew just by 0.1 percent.
Vietnam is now in the top 10 importers of seafood from Canada, he said, withits advantage as a FTA “hub” in the Asia-Pacific, Vietnam will serve as abridge to help Canadian goods and services access the 660million-strong ASEAN market, as well as to other important marketsin the region.
In return, Canada may be a gateway for Vietnamese products to penetrate othermarkets in America, Phong said.
Julie Nguyen, Director of the Canada-Vietnam Trade Council, said economiccooperation is becoming an issue of great concern of the two countries,especially when relevant parties are exploring the possibility of signing aCanada-ASEAN free trade agreement, and Vietnam is successfully taking over itsrole as ASEAN Chairman this year.
Canada along with four ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysiaand Brunei, are members of the CPTPP. The North American country and the blocare implementing the Plan of Action within the Canada-ASEAN Joint Declarationon Trade andInvestment.
In the context of Canada-ASEAN growing trade ties, Canadian experts saidthat it is necessary to establish a structure to facilitate growth and adapt tonew trends and challenges in international trade and investment.
The Canada-ASEAN FTA is expected to lay a solid foundation for promoting commitmentsand cooperation between the two sides./.
