The commitments are part of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZ FTA) signed at the ASEAN Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, on February 27.

“Vietnam has a lot to gain in terms of access to the Australian and New Zealand markets,” Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Allaster Cox said at a press briefing on the agreement in Hanoi on April 8.

As from 2010, Australia and New Zealand will give tariff exemption for such Vietnamese exports as fish, fresh and dried nuts and fruit, sugar, pulp and paper, wood and wooden furniture, as well as a majority of minerals, fibres, textile and apparel products imported from Vietnam by that year.

The Australian Ambassador stated that this agreement reflects the growing bilateral ties between Australia and Vietnam.

He noted that it not only enhances trade and investment by providing reduction and even elimination of tariffs on goods, but also improves administrative procedure and regulations relating to entry and travel towards giving more favour to businesspeople of both countries.

Currently, Vietnam is Australia’s sixth largest trade partner in ASEAN with two-way trade amounting to US$8 billion in 2007-08, representing 10 percent of Australia’s trade value with ASEAN.

The two countries’ trade has been growing at an annual rate of 22 percent over the past five years.

Ambassador Cox also said he was impressed by Vietnam’s economic integration commitments in the agreement and said Australia will deliver some technical assistance and capacity building programmes to support the Vietnamese government in materialising those commitments.

According to Cox, Australia will provide funding for the Vietnamese government to help with its work with businesses to help them better capitalise on the opportunities the agreement creates.

Apart from a prospect on a free movement of goods and services to the two industrialised countries, Vietnam expects to gain opportunities to boost labour cooperation with New Zealand via this FTA.

At present, New Zealand has reached a number of “limited agreements” with Vietnam that give temporary entry to New Zealand to 200 Vietnamese chefs and mechanical workers.

In addition to that, New Zealand and Vietnam have begun negotiating the working holiday schemes which will give about 100 Vietnamese workers an opportunity to work in New Zealand.

Tony Burchill, Senior Trade Commissioner of Australia, AANZ FTA is the largest ever FTA of Australia and New Zealand and is ASEAN’s most comprehensive free trade agreement.

The AANZ FTA covers a wide range of areas, including commodities, services, investment, property intellectual, e-trade, entrepreneurs’ temporary entry, and economic cooperation. It will benefit an area with an estimated population of 600 million and GDP totally valued at US$2.7 trillion.