Berlin (VNA) – Vietnamand the European Union (EU) are likely to sign the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement(EVFTA) soon, Daniel Muller, ASEAN Regional Manager for the German Asia-PacificBusiness Association, said in an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency (VNA)reporters in Germany.
The EVFTA is the bloc’s firstcomprehensive free trade deal with a developing country in Asia. Negotiationsbegan in June 2012 and were completed in December 2015 with contents similar tothose with Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.
The deal needs approval from theEuropean Council, the European Parliament and all EU member countries.
Muller said the EU and Japan,Singapore and Vietnam share interests in free trade agreements, especially at atime when the US is carrying out its trade protectionism policy, withdrew fromthe Trans-Pacific Partnership and denied to deal with common crises inmultilateral free trade.
According to him, Vietnam and the EU reached basicconsensus on the deal in 2015, and Vietnam needs to fix management shortcomingsalready mentioned by the bloc.-VNA
Vietnam, EU move to finalise EVFTA ratification
Vietnam and the European Union are working to finalize legal and language – related issues for the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) towards the official signing and ratification of the trade deal next year