A ceremony to celebrate the 74th National Day took place at the Vietnamese Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, on September 10, drawing 300 officials from the EU and Belgium, representatives of local businesses, and the Vietnamese community in the country.

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and head of the Vietnamese Delegation to the EU Vu Anh Quang said Vietnam attaches great importance to developing ties with the EU and Belgium in particular.

Promoting partnership with the EU and its member countries is one of the major pillars of Vietnam’s foreign policy, he said.

The Vietnam-EU relationship has thrived with the conclusion of negotiations on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) in June this year.

Meanwhile, Vietnam-Belgium ties have also expanded, especially in trade and investment.

The ambassador welcomed the contributions of the EU to peace, security and development in Southeast Asia, especially EU statements released in August regarding developments in the East Sea.

For his part, Jan Zahradil, President of the EU-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarian Group and Vice Chairman of the European Parliament Committee of International Trade, said the signing of the EVFTA more than two months ago in Hanoi was a key milestone for both sides, and helped make Vietnam’s National Day ceremony happier.

Zahradil said as Vice Chairman of the European Parliament Committee of International Trade, he has followed the negotiations of the EVFTA and found this is the most ambitious deal the EU has signed with a developing country.

The EU-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarian Group hopes to continue playing an active role during the European side’s approval of the deal, he said.

Commenting on Vietnam-Belgium relations after the signing of the EVFTA, Prof. Pierre Grega, Chairman of the Vietnam-Belgium Friendship Parliamentarian Group, said ties have been promoted in recent years and will thrive in the future, especially in trade, investment and training.

He said the ratification of the EVFTA will help expand trade and investment activities between the two countries. Vietnamese intellectuals trained in Belgium are expected to become a major force in the field, he added.

This year’s event features over 600 pavilions from 25 nations such as Germany, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, China, Pakistan, India, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.

On display at the exhibition are medical and pharmaceutical products, equipment used in production and packing in the medical sector, in addition to supplies of medical equipment, healthcare services, and medical environmental technology.

In his opening address, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong noted that Pharmedi Vietnam aims to promote exchanges between national and international firms within the field of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

The event also provides a good chance to showcase the latest achievements of the nation’s pharmaceutical industry and health sector, as well as creating opportunities for enterprises to seek new partners, expand into new markets, and update technologies.

Taking place throughout the show will be a number of trade activities.

In total, the exhibition is expected to attract 15,000 visitors and will run until September 14.

As Việt Nam joins more international trade agreements, dealing with and overcoming trade defence measures has become a top priority for Vietnamese businesses, especially for those working with markets known for their numerous and robust defence instruments such as the US and the EU.

Vietnamese shrimp exporters received good news as the US’ Department of Commerce (DOC) announced their conclusion regarding anti-dumping tariffs on products from Việt Nam with some 31 exporters exempt from the tariff, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Shrimp exports from Việt Nam to the US reached US$334 million in July, a 13.4 per cent increase from the same period last year. The DOC’s decision has resulted in a boost of morale for Vietnamese exporters as well as investors’ confidence. It showed a well-coordinated effort among VASEP and exporters to meet all the DOC’s requirements on transparency and credibility.

Looking elsewhere, however, there have been signs of trouble as measures are being tightened in major markets for Vietnamese products such as steel and fish.

For example, since the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) took effect in December last year, steel exports to Canada, a member of the trade pact, climbed to $78 million during the first six months of the year, almost three times the total value for the whole of 2018.

While the Vietnam Steel Association attributed the increase in exports to the CPTPP, which effectively reduces tariffs on Vietnamese products to zero, and claimed Vietnamese steel exporters do not participate in tax evasion and dumping practices, Canada has started a process to make changes to trade defence measures.

Notably, Canada and the US have reached an agreement in which Canada is committed to preventing the import of unfairly subsidised or dumped steel, as well as transhipment – foreign steel that moves through either country to the other.

Against the backdrop of stricter defence measures, the Trade Remedies Authority of Việt Nam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) advised Vietnamese exporters to review and revise their production and export output to avoid potential anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations.

It also issued a warning to Vietnamese steel exporters to steer clear of and not support violations of product origin rules and trade fraud to avoid hurting the country’s trade and potential lawsuits.

A source from the MoIT said the ministry is handling seven trade defence-related cases since the beginning of the year with another seven from last year.

Phạm Thanh Nga from the Việt Nam Society of International Law said for the next three years after the CPTPP takes effect, Vietnamese businesses and products are to face increasingly rigorous trade defence measures.

“Countries may impose numerous defence instruments based on suggestions from their domestic producers,” Nga said

Commenting on the topic, minister of Industry and Trade Trần Tuấn Anh said businesses must take the initiative to conduct a comprehensive study of trade defence and safeguard measures, intellectual property right protection and technical barriers for their markets.

— VNS