Globalization has been driving the world to the wide-openly economic area.

Countries and people from all over the world now have ability to approach
opportunities to trade goods, services, technology, articles to extend the economy
between the countries. That leads to the origination of FTA( Free Trade
Agreement), which really becomes vital importance in the world’s situation in the
last 20 years. In Vietnam, a developing socialism country, the FTAs bring lots of
chances and threats to the home country.
The EVFTA-the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement, a new generation FTA
between Vietnam and 28 EU member countries and also has the widest range of
commitments and the highest level of Vietnam ever. According to BBC news
Vietnamess, EVFTA is a comprehensive and balanced agreement of interests for
both Vietnam and the EU, which also takes into account the development gap
between the two sides. The FTA was signed on June 30th 2019, with the
commitment of nearly 100% of Vietnam's exports to the EU to eliminate tariffs,
this is the highest level of commitments in FTAs that Vietnam has signed with
partners so far. In particular, the EU is one of the two largest and most potential
export markets of Vietnam, the benefits are even more significant. For the EU,
Vietnam is also a highly valued market. In praise of Malmstrom Trade
Commissioner, with more than 95 million customers, Vietnam is a very potential,
exciting and promising market. On the other hand, the agreement also brings back
Vietnam threats that potetially hurt the economy and partnership between the home
country and the EU. The nearly 100% eliminated tariffs make the home market
more animated due to the penetration of the foreign companies.the Vietnamese
local companies meet hardness in the competition when the customers prefer
foreign goods with better quality and more effective marketing acttions from the
EU companies. That might be originated from the Vietnamese customers’
psychological agents. BBC news also points out the challenges that Vietnam can
meet due to the FTA.Big companies in Europe will easily control the Vietnamese
market; Vietnamese goods will have to meet high technology standards (in terms
of health, environment, intellectual property protection) before being imported by
EU countries; Vietnam will not have the right to directly help domestic companies
even though they are in the infancy stage, something that other countries like
Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore did before becoming develope. To take
advantage of EVFTA as well as avoid risks, firstly, agribusinesses need to
understand and apply flexibly and honestly rules of origin of FTA. More
importantly, businesses need to focus on implementing and meeting the regulations
and standards on labor and environment, issues related to sustainable development
and strengthening cooperation, focusing on chain linkages to improve High yield,
quality. In fact, at present, the issue of social responsibility, in particular, labor is a
difficult problem for the agricultural sector due to economic conditions and social
situations other than the EU. Overtime work, holidays are a difficult problem for
Vietnamese businesses in the context of agricultural product processing industry is
quite hard, does not attract workers as desired. Many businesses said that, when in
the coconut harvest, if not overtime can cause material damage, damage. If the
overtime is worked, our labor policy has its own set of modest, weekly, monthly
and annual overtime hours. What are the differences between EVFTA and TPP?
TPP is The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) signed between 12 countries on
February 4, 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand after 5 years of negotiations with the
aim of integrating the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. The agreement was
initially signed by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore on June 3, 2005 and
entered into force on May 28, 2006. After that, five more countries negotiated to
accede to it, namely: Australia, Malaysia, Peru, United States, and Vietnam. On
November 14, 2010, the last day of the APEC Summit in Japan, leaders of nine
countries (the eight countries above and Japan) endorsed President Obama's
proposal for setting goals of The 2011 APEC Summit negotiations took place in
the United States. In late 2016, after the election of US President Donald Trump,
according to Donald Trump's new policy, the US officially withdrew this
agreement. The original goal of the Agreement was to reduce 90% of tariffs among
member countries before January 1, 2006 and cut to zero by 2015. This is a
comprehensive agreement covering all key aspects of a free trade agreement,
including the exchange of goods, rules of origin, interventions, technical barriers,
exchange of services, intellectual property issues, policies of government.
The CPTPP – also known as TPP-11 – is the revamped Trans-Pacific Partnership
which crumbled when US president Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the
deal shortly after taking office in early 2017. It is expected to reduce tariffs
between the 11 participating economies that together add up to US$10 trillion.
According to South China Mornig Post, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan
Phuc said Hanoi would use a combination of trade deals and domestic reforms to
survive the US-China trade war. For Vietnam, the CPTPP gives its highly export-
dependent economy more avenues for mitigating the fallout of the trade tensions
between its two biggest trading partners, Washington and Beijing, which are not
part of the deal. About a quarter of Vietnam’s total trade is with China, which is
facing potential tariffs on all of its exports to the US amid the trade war. Due to the
above, the CPTPP’s sourcing rules will help Vietnam to reduce its reliance on
China for a range of raw materials and components – such as yarns and textiles for
its garment industry – by requiring them to come from member countries in order
to enjoy tariff-free trade. Vietnam depends on China for intermediate goods, but it
depends on the US for consumption. It would be difficult for Vietnam to find
another source (for some products) in the short term.
Overall, the FTAs between Vietnam and countries around the world have
been pushed further and bring back Vietnam lots of opportunities to widen the
market and spread Its goods network to anywhere.