'Behind the scenes' of WTO negotiations: Stories just told...

With the principle of both cooperation and struggle, the negotiation to join the WTO and later free trade agreements has helped Vietnam deeply integrate into the international economy, becoming one of the 20 economies with the largest trade scale in the world.

Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia and Deputy Minister of Trade Luong Van Tu signed the conclusion of bilateral negotiations with the US on joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) on May 31, 2006 in Ho Chi Minh City.

In November 1987, Mr. Luong Van Tu (former Deputy Minister of Trade) was lucky to meet the First Vice President of the Council of Ministers Vo Van Kiet. Mr. Kiet assigned him a special mission: By all means, normalize relations with Singapore and join ASEAN.

"The context at that time forced us to open up" - Mr. Tu recalled, after the country's reunification in 1975, Vietnam was surrounded "on all sides" and embargoed by the US.

The country faced many difficulties, not yet recovering from the war, then two border wars in the North and Southwest, the economy fell into crisis, inflation at times reached more than 700%, which according to Mr. Tu was "unimaginable".

Along with the open-door policy is the birth of the Law on Attracting Foreign Investment in 1987 to realize the policy that Vietnam is ready to be friends with all countries in the world. Mr. Tu said that normalizing relations with Singapore and promoting negotiations for Vietnam to join ASEAN will help us balance relations with other countries, creating a comprehensive counterbalance.

Therefore, through diplomatic relations, as the chief representative of Vietnam in Singapore, Mr. Tu arranged many visits for our country's senior leaders to Singapore to promote and realize the assigned tasks.

In particular, the visit and work of Minister of Trade Le Van Triet with Minister of Industry and Trade Lee Hsien Loong; and the visit of Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vo Van Kiet in 1991 marked the normalization of relations between Vietnam and Singapore, as well as opened the door for Vietnam to join ASEAN, officially joining this organization in 1995, laying the foundation for Vietnam to normalize relations with the US.

I think that in economic negotiations, determining the roadmap for opening up is the most important. Strong partner countries in certain fields will request to open up that field, but we have to rebalance, based on their requests and cannot make a general commitment for all, but must negotiate carefully for each industry.

Mr. Luong Van Tu shared souvenir photos taken during the negotiation period.

Longest integration negotiation

* Joining ASEAN and normalizing relations with the US opened up opportunities for Vietnam to negotiate its accession to the WTO - opening the way for international economic integration. As the head of the negotiating delegation, what do you remember most?

- Up to now, the WTO negotiations are still one of the longest negotiations on international economic integration. They spanned three prime ministers, deputy prime ministers and three ministers of industry and trade. We negotiated with 149 countries and territories, went through 200 intense intellectual sessions, and answered 3,316 questions about Vietnam's policy mechanisms and issues of amending the legal system.

The big problem is that the negotiation must be linked to the amendment of domestic legal regulations to make them suitable for the new situation and WTO regulations. Especially the pressure from the US when they requested to amend the law. To negotiate effectively, we made a commitment to amend 29 laws, but in reality, in response to the requirements of innovation, we have to amend up to 110 laws and ordinances to make them suitable for the socialist-oriented market economy.

Because our laws are patchy, the National Assembly can only amend 5 laws each year, so some foreign experts say it will take Vietnam about 20 years to amend its legal system. Foreign press reports this information and puts more pressure on us.

In 2004, the US expressed its willingness to help Vietnam make a "master law" (a law to regulate other laws - PV). I asked: "How long does it take to make a master law?"; the US side replied that it would take 2 years, but I think if Vietnam did it, it would take up to 4 years.

That could cause us to lose opportunities. Therefore, I propose to amend Article 8 of the Law on International Treaties, which means that if an international commitment is higher than domestic law, it will be applied according to the international commitment. With this proposal, the US side agrees and we have time to amend the law later and have the opportunity to negotiate.

Thanks to that, negotiations with the US ended in Ho Chi Minh City on May 31, 2006, the US lifted the Jackson Venick embargo and granted permanent normal trade rights with Vietnam.

On October 3, 1991, Minister of Trade Le Van Triet met with Singaporean Minister of Industry and Trade Lee Hsien Loong to discuss inviting Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vo Van Kiet to visit and normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Mr. Luong Van Tu welcomed Mr. Vo Van Kiet as a Government leader to normalize diplomatic relations with Singapore.

* Not only is the battle of wits intense, does the request to open up and negotiate to join the WTO right after we have just ended the war cause domestic concerns, sir?

- If the 200 negotiation sessions with partners were tense intellectual battles, the domestic "negotiations" also faced a lot of pressure, especially the explanation sessions before ministries, localities, associations, and industry businesses.

Therefore, the requirement is to have a clear understanding of the Party's ideology, perception and viewpoint on the issue of international economic integration. We regularly meet with deputy ministers of ministries and branches to share information, agree on what we will open up, and what level of commitment.

In addition, at the monthly meetings of the Central Ideology and Culture Committee, I am responsible for informing and reporting to the editors-in-chief of newspapers and radio stations about the negotiation process and the opportunities and challenges for Vietnam in each field and industry.

Every month, I discuss and work with the Party committees, the National Assembly, the National Assembly standing agencies and especially the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Vu Mao to inform and emphasize the urgent need to amend the law, not only to help us join the WTO but also to reform internally.

We also went to lobby the revolutionary elders. At that time, there were three organizations: the Veterans Association, the Thang Long Club and the Bach Dang Club - veterans who had sacrificed and contributed to the independence and freedom of the country, so they were very interested and worried about joining the WTO.

Determine the opening route

* What is the international public opinion and external organizations' view of Vietnam's negotiations? Do they believe we will succeed?

- The pressure from outside is equally intense. Because many countries and organizations consider us a centrally planned economy with bureaucratic subsidies, a socialist economy that is not suitable for a market economy. A journalist asked: "A market economy with a socialist regime is like oil and water, if we integrate, how can we dissolve?"

I chose to answer: "Although oil and water are both liquids, they both have no limits," and received applause from the entire hall.

Or when negotiating with the US, there was also a very challenging question: "If the US Congress approves the atomic bombing of Khe Sanh, what do you think?".

I calmly said: "Fortunately, the US Congress did not agree to drop atomic bombs on Vietnam. If it had approved it, I don't think we would be here today."

When joining the WTO, we drafted a resolution of the Politburo on proactive international economic integration (later Resolution 07/2001), setting out the principle of both cooperation and struggle, not just going along with the flow and listening to whatever is told.

We have identified three main goals of integration: to have global markets, goods and services; to attract capital and technology; to learn management skills of a market economy. With this resolution, we boldly carry out everything, realizing the goal of negotiating and joining the WTO.

The first Singaporean business delegation visited and worked with the Investment and Cooperation Committee. Then visited the Temple of Literature and took souvenir photos on September 28, 1993.

* Requesting to open up but still protecting domestic production, adding pressure from partners... how will the negotiating team resolve to balance these conflicting factors?

- When negotiating, countries ask us to open the market to the maximum. But it is important that we study the endurance of the economy and each sector. How much should we open to survive and develop?

For example, opening the milk market, I worked directly with Ms. Lien (general director of Vinamilk), raising the issue of whether Vietnam has milk factories, if it opens, at what level, and how to reduce taxes so that businesses can endure.

Industry associations and businesses are consulted and contribute to the opening roadmap, suitable for each industry. From there, it is determined which industries will open first, which industries will open gradually and which will open immediately, without giving a general plan.

There are important sectors that are forced to apply quotas for a certain period of time. Or there are sectors that we absolutely do not open, such as the distribution of gasoline, tobacco or the banking sector which is only open to a limited extent, no more than 25%, while the telecommunications sector is the most open.

Graphics: TAN DAT

Humanity never rejects what is good.

* For you, which session was the most stressful, requiring many negotiations?

- The most "tense" negotiations are with the EU, the US and China. China requests to open the road market when the WTO has no regulations; or requests to open the banking market, but this is an underdeveloped market.

With the US, it is normal to negotiate all night, or even have to negotiate many rounds. There are times when the negotiation is successful, but the next session changes people, negating all the results of the previous session, forcing us to negotiate again. In many areas, they want us to open up as much as possible, but Vietnam cannot accept it, trying to maintain its stance throughout the sessions.

For example, the textile industry is our advantage, but the US wants to impose quotas while the WTO does not have quotas. The other side even requested the establishment of an organization to monitor and inspect the implementation of Vietnam's commitments, but I definitely did not agree. I remember that at that time, we fought with our friends in Washington for several nights in a row, achieved the expected results and the final round of negotiations took place in Ho Chi Minh City on May 31, 2006.

But achieving that result was not simple. Along with the negotiation was the process of lobbying US textile industry associations to promote cooperation, from which they lobbied US senators to have a voice; actively working with Boeing, a number of large car distribution companies, which were businesses that had good relationships with the US president at that time.

We also opened the market for American life insurance companies to enter Vietnam, but asked them to lobby American politicians to show support for Vietnam's textile industry so that when we have jobs and income, we will buy insurance. Thanks to that, we will get the desired results.

* The achievements of the WTO are undeniable and Vietnam has increasingly participated in new generation FTAs. To take advantage of opportunities from economic integration, what advice do you have?

- The achievements of joining the WTO and FTAs ​​are the result of the correct integration policy of the Party and Government; the drastic implementation of ministries and branches, especially the contributions of efforts, perseverance, smart and creative negotiations of all members of the negotiating delegation.

The National Assembly has concluded that joining the WTO is important and fundamental, opening up other international economic integrations. We have a global market, the legal system is increasingly amended and perfected to suit the socialist-oriented market economy, attracting foreign capital, technology and investment. Enterprises abandon the mindset of relying on and waiting for the State and are autonomous in production.

To date, Vietnam is one of the 20 economies with the largest trade scale in the world, maintaining a trade surplus for the 8th consecutive year, maintaining a highly open economy, up to 200% of GDP, and per capita income increasing from 730 USD to 4,700 USD.

However, there are still things that I am concerned about. That is, the growth rate of Vietnamese enterprises is not proportional. The problem of technology transfer is still low, as well as the development of the domestic market is still limited.

I remember in 1990 when I flew to Taiwan (China) to introduce the Investment Law, a journalist asked: "Is there private sector in Vietnam?" At that time, I thought that if I answered "yes" I would violate the regulations, but if I said no, other countries would not cooperate.

So I chose to answer by rephrasing the question: "So what are the advantages of the private sector?" and was told that private enterprises would be more dynamic, have lower management costs, be highly competitive, and create more jobs. In response, I only gave the affirmation: "Humanity never rejects what is good."

Recently, with Resolution 68 on private economic development, or Resolution 57 on promoting innovation, science and technology issued by the Politburo, I hope that it will create real conditions for domestic enterprises and the private economy to develop.

In fact, the WTO's summary shows that after COVID-19, there will be up to 3,000 new trade barriers, bringing the world into a new stage of trade. Therefore, in addition to enhancing the capacity of the economy, the core is private enterprises.

We also need to continue to maintain a policy of deep integration, focusing on actively integrating with emerging economies, prioritizing the BRICS bloc, in order to take advantage of and open up new opportunities.

In 1995, we normalized diplomatic relations with the US, in 2000 the Vietnam-US Trade Agreement (BTA) was signed, but it was not until the end of WTO negotiations in 2006 that the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status was approved by the US, marking a major step forward in normalizing trade relations between the two countries.

NGOC AN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hau-truong-dam-phan-wto-chuyen-bay-gio-moi-ke-20250828101059975.htm