One-party legislature ratifies Vietnam joining WTO

HANOI, Nov 28 (Reuters) Vietnam's one-party legislature today ratified the communist-run country's entry to the World Trade Organisation, clearing the way for it to become the 150th member of the biggest capitalist free trade club by year end.

The National Assembly, or parliament, voted overwhelmingly in favour, three weeks after Vietnam won approval from the WTO General Assembly in Geneva to join after clinching free trade agreements with its major trading partners.

''WTO membership will bring about tremendous opportunities for Vietnam. It also creates momentum to boost foreign investment and elevates Vietnam's status in the international community,'' President Nguyen Minh Triet told National Assembly delegates in a televised session.

The under-developed Southeast Asian country of 83 million has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world after China, but its per capita annual income was just 720 dollars in 2006.

The total GDP was estimated at 61 billion dollars this year, but annual growth was estimated at 8.2 per cent in 2006 and forecast at up to 8.5 per cent next year.

Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen, considered the architect of key trade deals including one with former war enemy the United States, told the assembly that businesses would face fierce competition in the international market.

''Products against products, businesses against businesses.

The pressure will be on each business, household and organisation,'' Tuyen said. ''Some businesses will even face bankruptcy.'' Tuyen also said one of the advantages of Vietnam being a WTO member would be the removal of quotas on garment exports, Vietnam's biggest non-oil export item. Vietnam ranks third for crude oil production in Southeast Asia.

It is the world's biggest producer of robusta coffee and the world's second-largest rice exporter after Thailand.

''The removal of subsidies for agriculture product export will have little impact on farmers because in the past only exporters received subsidies,'' Tuyen said.

On the plus side, Tuyen said Vietnam would have ''a more transparent and flexible business environment, enabling the country to attract more foreign investment''.

Foreign investment commitments were expected to reach a record 9 billion dollars this year, according to government figures, despite concerns over endemic corruption in government and society, and lack of international auditing standards for companies.

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