EU-Vietnam Economic and Trade Relations

Analyse approfondie 07-09-2012

Vietnam has been applauded as a development success story. Reforms launched in 1986 have transformed the country from one of the world's poorest into a lower middle income country, open to trade and investment. Despite the country's success, Vietnam is still a mixture of a state-controlled and marketdriven economy. For the past five years, growth has slowed, and the country has faced severe macroeconomic problems. Aware of persistent inefficiencies, the Vietnamese authorities have committed to a series of economic reforms. The negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU launched in 2012 will take Vietnam's development level into account. In order for the EU to reap a significant benefit, the Union's ultimate goal remains the conclusion of a larger, regionto- region FTA with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).