Vietnamese enterprises’ ability to take advantage of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) depends on their preparation, Nguyen Th? Thu Trang, director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (VCCI) WTO and Integration Centre, told a conference on opportunities and challenges from CPTPP in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam’s exports of footwear and garment-textile to CPTPP member countries account for 12.5 per cent and 16.04 per cent respectively of their total exports, she said.
“We export a lot to CPTPP member countries, but our market share remains modest, for instance at 2-2.9 per cent of their footwear imports and 0-6 per cent of garment and textile imports. Therefore, there is still much more room for Vietnamese firms to boost exports,” she was quoted as saying by a Vietnamese newspaper.
Canada, Mexico and Peru are countries that Vietnam does not have free trade agreement with, and therefore, CPTPP offers great opportunities for Vietnamese firms to access these markets through preferential tariffs, she said.
But to capitalise on the opportunities, the products must meet the CPTPP’s rules of origin and conform with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements and technical barriers to trade (TBT), she added.
Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Chile are countries that Vietnam has bilateral or multilateral FTAs with.
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