The implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) after being approved will not create a "shock" on tariff reductions for Vietnam.

Overview of the meeting 

Fishery has many advantages

According to information shared by Luong Hoang Thai, Director of Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) at the seminar "RCEP Agreement: Opportunities and challenges" this morning, November 19, in Hanoi.

Internally, the RCEP Agreement will open more opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises to boost exports, participate in new value chains in the region and increase foreign investment attraction.

The tariff cuts will open up new opportunities for products from prominent sectors such as telecommunications, information technology, textiles, footwear and agriculture.

Thanks to the harmonization of the rules of origin in the RCEP, Vietnam's exported goods can increase their ability to meet the conditions for preferential tariff treatment because the supply of raw materials is mainly in the RCEP to increase export possibilities in this region, especially in major markets such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.

Analyzing more deeply the case of seafood, the leader of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department said that, in recent times, the majority of countries in RCEP are assessed as having high demand to import soy products.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is a country with advantages in seafood export and in the last 10 years, Vietnam's seafood industry has continuously maintained a very positive growth rate, ranking 3rd in the world in terms of exports and has exported to more than 185 countries and territories around the world.

“In the RCEP region, most of the countries are not very demanding consumers, except for three countries Japan, Australia and New Zealand. For Vietnam's strong industries in RCEP, fisheries will be one of the industries that are competitive enough and can penetrate strongly into the markets of RCEP partners,” Thai said.

In addition, the commitments of China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and ASEAN countries to reduce tariffs to 0% right after the agreement comes into effect and South Korea after the 10-15 year commitment roadmap.With the majority of Vietnam's seafood products, it will open up new opportunities for Vietnam to export this powerful commodity to these markets of RCEP countries more quickly and conveniently.

Do not create a tariff "shock"

The RCEP Agreement provides an opportunity for Vietnam to establish a stable, long-term export market in one of the world's largest free trade areas with about 2.2 billion people but also poses challenges in facilitating for goods imported from ASEAN countries and other partners in the RCEP.

With this problem, right from the negotiation stage of the agreement, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has given many solutions such as prioritizing tariff reduction commitments for goods as input materials for production.

Seafood is a typical commodity that has an export boosting advantage with RCEP.
Photo: Nguyen Thanh

According to statistics, every year, Vietnam is importing about US$30 billion of raw materials and production equipment from ASEAN countries.

Vietnam also has a trade deficit with major markets such as China and South Korea, for input materials of important export industries such as electronics, computers, textiles, footwear, cars.

The priority of tariff reduction for this group of products will help reduce input costs for domestic manufacturing enterprises, thereby increasing the competitiveness of related domestically produced goods.

In fact, Vietnam has joined ASEAN countries and five partners in the RCEP under the intra-ASEAN FTA agreements, namely the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), and the FTAs ​​between ASEAN and each of five ASEAN partners above (referred to as the ASEAN + 1 FTAs).

“The process of tariff liberalization with ASEAN countries has been implemented for more than 20 years and with the above five partner countries in the past 15 years. Therefore, the implementation of the RCEP Agreement, after being ratified, will not create a tariff reduction shock for Vietnam,” emphasized the leader of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department.

Luong Hoang Thai also emphasized that, from a business perspective, participating in any FTA with members with higher technical qualifications will be the biggest challenge for commodity products, requiring enterprises to change themselves, improve product quality and productivity.