WTO applauds Vietnam’s trade policy reforms   WTO members welcomes positive changes to Vietnam’s trade policies since it joined the organisation in 2007. Nhan Dan – The World Trade Organisation (WHO) released its first-ever review report on Vietnam’s trade policies and practices on September 17. Here is the full text of an interview with Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh on this policy review. Question: Could you please give an overview of the WTO’s trade policy review mechanism? What do you think is the significance of this mechanism for the WTO and reviewed members? Answer: Trade policy review is an exercise mandated in WTO agreements. Its objective is to strengthen the enforcement of WTO regulations, increase the transparency and understanding of countries’ trade policies and practices so that good practices can be promoted and policies disadvantageous to the multilateral trading system can be prevented. This is a chance for WTO members to review and assess the policy environment of a member to help that member refine its policies in a way that follows more closely the WTO rules and disciplines. Question: Is this the first time that Vietnam’s trade policies are under review at WTO? When will the second review take place? Answer: According to WTO regulations, all members are to come under scrutiny over a period of time. The frequency of the reviews depends on the country’s size. Vietnam is among the group of members that are reviewed every six years. After six years since WTO accession, this is the first time that Vietnam’s trade policies have been reviewed. If Vietnam’s proportion to global trade does not increase, its trade policies are to be evaluated for the second time in the next six years. If the proportion rises, the review intervals will be reduced to four or two years. Question: All WTO members say that the review is quite a hard work. Do you have any comments on this statement and in this first review, are there any challenges facing Vietnam? Answer: WTO’s trade policy review covers a wide range of economic and trade policies so it requires a member to make great strides to complete the review. Vietnam took two years of preparations for this review. Government ministries and agencies had to collect and review thousands of legal documents, economic development strategies, sectoral development plans and so on and then worked together with the WTO Secretariat to complete a 183-page report on Vietnam’s trade policies as well as answer over 500 questions after the report was handed to WTO members. This is a great effort of Vietnam. Question: Could you please tell us the hopes and objectives of Vietnam in this review? Answer: Some members may be shy about trade policy reviews because they regard it as a chance for other members to criticise the weaknesses of their economic and trade policies. Vietnam has a different way of thinking. Vietnam approaches the review with an open mind, willing to listen to all constructive comments on the country’s legal framework and business environment. Vietnam considers this a chance to promote the country’s image and demonstrate that the country is serious about fulfilling its WTO commitments and is striving to improve its business climate, regardless of adversities arising from the global financial crisis. Question: How was the review of Vietnam’s trade policies received by WTO members? Answer: In a spirit of willingness to listen, WTO members highly appreciates the review of Vietnam’s trade policies. All of 27 opinions at the opening session highly valued the achievements of Vietnam since the country was admitted to the WTO and considered Vietnam a success story. WTO members were impressed with positive changes to business environment in Vietnam. They put forward many constructive recommendations that encourage Vietnam to further refine the legal system, push through administrative reforms, especially investment and export-import procedures, strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property rights and accelerate State-owned enterprise reforms. Some suggested Vietnam should open its market to some specific services and notify their trade policies more regularly to the WTO. We took these suggestions seriously and had frank conversations with them to clarify many related issues. The atmosphere by and large was very positive and WTO members were satisfied with the review of Vietnam’s trade policies. Nhandanonline