WTO formally approves Vietnam membership

Geneva, Nov 7: The World Trade Organisation (WTO) formally approved Vietnam's accession on Tuesday, clearing the way for the communist Asian state to become its 150th member.

Vietnam will officially join 30 days after its National Assembly ratifies the accession accords.

The executive General Council approved the deal struck late last month by the WTO's working party on Vietnam's accession, a formality as the working party is open to all WTO states with an interest in the negotiation.

Vietnam, a country of 82 million people with a fast-growing economy, has been trying to join the WTO for 12 years.

The entry deal includes a detailed list of the tariffs and quotas Vietnam will apply to foreign imports, the ceilings it will apply on subsidies to its farm sector and timetables for reducing them.

WTO membership will afford the country's textile, rice and coffee exporters protection from arbitrary moves by other countries to block Vietnamese imports regarded as threatening to domestic producers.

It also specifies services such as banking, insurance and telecommunications that Vietnam will open to outside providers and spells out limits to the restrictions it can impose on foreign ownership of firms inside the country.

Vietnam will step further into trade diplomacy on Nov. 17-18 when it hosts a Hanoi summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), a body which includes the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

REUTERS