CPTPP members convene to consider UK request for official accession
VOV.VN - A teleconference gathering various ministers and officials from the 11 countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) took place on June 2 to consider the UK's request to officially join the trade deal.
The Vietnamese delegation was made up of representatives from the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Information, and Communications, along with the Office of the Inter-sectoral Steering Committee for International Economic Integration, led by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.
During the event, participants welcomed the UK's formal request for accession to the trading bloc on February 1, whilst also adopting the CPTPP commission’s decision to kick-start the negotiation process in relation to the UK’s admission to the CPTPP.
They also granted approval to the Joint Ministerial Statement of 11 CPTPP member countries on this issue. Ministers therefore emphasized that the commencement of the accession process involving the UK will send a strong signal to global trading partners that CPTPP members are fully committed to supporting a free, fair, open, effective, inclusive, and rules-based trading system.
The move will create an opportunity to promote the high-standard rules of the CPTPP moving forward, while also helping to restore and develop trade activities throughout the Asia-Pacific region and around the world amid geopolitical economic turmoil and the complicated nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ministers affirmed that CPTPP member countries will co-ordinate alongside the UK to ensure that high standards and the leading status of the trade pact as part of regional and global linkages will be maintained in the near future.
During the course of meeting, Vietnam put forward a number of useful ideas which were greatly appreciated by other countries, thereby contributing to the overall success of the fourth meeting of the commission.
The UK first established a strategic partnership with Vietnam on October 22, 2010, with the nation and Singapore being the first countries in the ASEAN region to establish an FTA with the UK.
Total two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and the UK hit US$5.55 billion last year, of which Vietnamese exports to the UK market reached US$4.88 billion and imports stood at US$670 million.
The UK is currently the third largest Vietnamese trading partner in Europe, and the country’s ninth largest export market worldwide.
