Vietnam expects that Japan will continue to play a leading role in strengthening the multilateral trading system, facilitating trade and investment, and contributing to regional and global development and prosperity.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, head of the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to
the UN, WTO and other international organisations in Geneva (Photo: VNA) 

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, head of the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the UN, WTO and other international organisations in Geneva made the statement at Japan’s 14th Trade Policy Review session at the WTO headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland, from July 6-8.

Mai said Vietnam highly valued Japan's role in the global economy, in the Asia-Pacific region and for Vietnam, and welcomed Japan as one of the important members in the rules-based multilateral trading system.

While highlighting the fruitful development of trade and investment relations between Vietnam and Japan, the ambassador affirmed that Japan has been one of Vietnam's leading trade and investment partners over the past decade.

In 2008, the two countries signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement - the first comprehensive free trade agreement of Vietnam, she added.

New-generation free trade agreements that both Vietnam and Japan are joining such as the ASEAN-Japan Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that the two sides are joining negotiations, are paving the way for the two countries to step up cooperative relations, contributing significantly to bilateral trade and investment ties, and their cooperation in other areas such as sustainable development, she stated.

According to the ambassador, Japan has actively participated in and promoted commitments to trade and investment liberalisation in the WTO and other forums such as the Group of Seven (G7), the group of world leading developing and emerging economies (G20), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), and other regional mechanisms to address challenges to global trade.

The 14th Trade Policy Review session provided an opportunity for WTO members to comprehensively examine economic, trade and investment policies of Japan - one of the world’s largest commodity and service economies.

Most of the WTO members said Japan's trade and investment policies are opening and transparent, and the country is one of the members playing an important role in the global trading system. The country has contributed to supporting and defending the rule-based multilateral trading system, promoting trade and investment liberalisation, and strengthening the role of the WTO.