An overview of the meeting (Photo: baodautu.vn) Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Industry and Trade NguyenHong Dien and European CommissionVice-President and EU tradecommissioner Valdis Dombrovskis have co-chaired the first meetingof the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement(EVFTA)'s Trade Committee.
The meeting, held in online format, aimed to review theimplementation of the deal and discuss issues related to trade and investmentin both bilateral and multilateral frameworks.
Participants adopted Decision No. 01 of the committee on itsoperation mechanism, which comprises regulations on its function, membership, secretariat,decision-making procedure, and information transparency.
Both sides agreed to coordinate closely to speed up theimplementation of the deal and cope with matters that may pose negative impactson the operation of businesses of both sides, thus maintaining and developingthe supply chain amid COVID-19 pandemic.
At the meeting, the two sides also mentioned a number ofmultilateral issues such as the reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and thepreparation for the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, which isscheduled to take place from November 30 to December 1 in Switzerland.
The Vietnamese side highly valued and supported the EU’sefforts over the years in ensuring that the WTO operates in line with newreality in international trade and investment as well as interests of membercountries, especially under-developed and developing ones, said Minister Dien.
The EVFTA became effective on August 1, 2020. Afternearly one year of implementation, the two sides have enjoyed positive growthin bilateral trade. Their import-export value hit 27.67billion USD in the first six months of 2021, up 18.4 percent over the sameperiod last year./.
