Putting the EVFTA into practice

​In Dong Nai, over the past time, the local authorities and business community have also made positive moves because the European Union (EU) is a large export market, and is itself a very important investor in this province.

Dong Nai will not ‘miss the beat’

By joining EVFTA, Vietnam has the opportunity to access large markets and has to open its market. And one advantage is that Vietnamese and EU economic products are complementary.

EU is the largest export market of Dong Nai Province. According to Mr. Le Van Loc, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade (MOIT), the Department has coordinated with relevant units to integrate and step by step deploy the contents of the agreement through programs and conferences to disseminate the agreement to the business community; while closely following the programs and plans of the MOIT, linking the MOIT’s website to provide necessary information on origin of goods, technical and legal barriers, etc. which helps businesses to take full advantage as soon as possible.

However, Deputy Director of MOIT Le Van Loc also commented that in addition to state support, the main decisive factor is still the efforts of each enterprise because the EU is a potential but also challenging market.

The industry and trade are investigating the actual cooperation of Vietnamese enterprises locally with key European markets. Accordingly, when participating in the survey, these businesses will be included in Vietnamese enterprise data to introduce to European partners, be enjoyed priority to join the business delegation on market survey, be learned experience and met importers/distributors in key markets, and updated with the latest information on trade promotion programs, related classes and seminars.

Need for synchronization

With the EVFTA coming into effect, on August 5, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved the Government's Action Program to implement said EVFTA with five groups of missions. The PM then convened an online meeting with ministries, branches and localities to discuss the implementation of the agreement in practice on August 6.

As a coordinator for EVFTA’s implementation, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh stated that, different from previous trade agreements, the Government has quickly come up with an action plan and ministries, depending on their tasks, have their own plans. This is a clear evidence for the companionship with enterprises of the Government, ministries, branches and localities; Focusing on enterprises and taking international standards as a measure to consolidate manufacturing industries capable of competing with imported products, thereby creating a firm position when participating equally in the international market is an indispensable requirement. Many very important issues such as intellectual property, origin, anti-dumping, trade prevention,... are weaknesses of Vietnamese enterprises.

For the business community, with the commitments of the agreement, the sooner the enterprise is deployed, the more beneficial it is. Therefore, the ministries, branches, localities and industry associations need to set up specific and detailed instructions, helping businesses reduce their training time.

In addition to the legal issues when doing business with the EU, it is also important to soon have a policy for domestic enterprises to access financial packages and other support, especially in the current pivotal period. When businesses are easier to access preferential loans, production premises and administrative procedures, there will be a better chance to take advantage of them.

Phan Anh