Mind the Gap

Countdown to Viet Nam’s Accession to the WTO

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Vietnamese (368K PDF)

Viet Nam is entering its final stages of accession negotiations. Although it is unlikely that it will achieve the goal of joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the time of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December, negotiators want a swift end to the process. Analysis of progress made between the two Working Party meetings of April and September 2005 reveals that Working Party members are continuing to demand further concessions from the Vietnamese negotiators. If agreed to, these concessions could have potentially damaging consequences for Viet Nam’s ability to safeguard the livelihoods of its poorest people.

The demands are being led by three of the six countries yet to complete bilateral negotiations with Viet Nam: the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Yet hope for a pro-development accession package is not yet entirely lost. Oxfam believes there are a number of key elements, still under negotiation, that must be retained if development is to be sealed into Viet Nam’s WTO membership agreement. This paper sets out those elements in detail.

Date of publication: November 2007