The deputy minister said the 14^th session between Vietnamese negotiators, the WTO task force and related members reviewed Vietnam's pledges on commodities and services sectors and reports of the task force. They also made plans for further discussions to hopefully close the deal by the end of the month.

In the unofficial talks from October 10-12, the task force aimed to settle discussions on special consumption taxes, trading rights, import and export quotas for some controversial commodities, and special economic zones.

The deputy minister said that in the unofficial talks his team hoped to wrap up discussions, in which the parties have reached consensus on some key issues. He said his team continued to clear remaining issues in October 12 final talks.

The deputy minister said he hoped the 14^th session would mostly finalise multilateral discussions and ascertain the final report on bilateral commitments on commodities and services sectors.

In the official session on October 9, the head of the task force proposed to finalise discussions with Vietnam in October, with another session on either the 25^th or 26^th to approve bilateral and multilateral commitments.

The proposed session will also approve a protocol to submit to the WTO's general council to approve Vietnam as its 150^th member.

It will take the task force at least 10 days to call for the WTO's general council meeting.