EU.docx

**EU -- Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)** EVFTA is a new-generation FTA, with a wide range and high degree of commitments. The Agreement consists of 17 Chapters, 2 Protocols and some understandings, covering various aspects of commerce, including: Trade in goods; Services, investment liberaliz...

**EU -- Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)** EVFTA is a new-generation FTA, with a wide range and high degree of commitments. The Agreement consists of 17 Chapters, 2 Protocols and some understandings, covering various aspects of commerce, including: Trade in goods; Services, investment liberalization, and e-commerce; Government procurement; and Intellectual property rights. **Trade in goods** ***Commitment to open the EU commodity market*** EU commits to eliminate tariffs as soon as EVFTA comes into effect for Vietnamese goods contained in 85.6% of tariff lines, equivalent to 70.3% of Vietnamese export turnover to the EU. Within 7 years since EVFTA takes effect, the EU commits to eliminate 99.2% of tariff lines, equivalent to 99.7% of Vietnamese export turnover to the EU. For the remaining 0.3% of export turnover (including: some rice products, sweet corn, garlic, mushrooms, sugar and products containing high content of sugar, tapioca starch, canned tuna), the EU commits to open to Vietnam under the tariff rate quotas (TRQs) with the import tarrif within the quota of 0%. ***Commitment to opening the goods market of Vietnam*** Vietnam commits to eliminating tariffs as soon as EVFTA comes into effect for EU goods belonging to 48.5% of tariff lines, equivalent to 64.5% of EU export turnover to Vietnam. Within 7 years since EVFTA takes effect, Vietnam commits to eliminate 91.8% of tariff lines, equivalent to 97.1% of EU export turnover to Vietnam. Within 10 years since EVFTA comes into effect, Vietnam commits to eliminate about 98.3% of tariff lines, accounting for 99.8% of EU\'s export turnover to Vietnam. For about 1.7% of the remaining EU tariff lines, Vietnam commits to set tariff quotas as WTO commitments, or apply a special elimination roadmap (such as cigarettes, gasoline, beer, components for cars and motorcycles). ***Commitment on export tariff*** Vietnam and the EU commit to not applying any kind of export tariffs or fees except for cases which are clearly reserved (according to the commitment results, only Vietnam has reservations on this issue, the EU does not make any reservations). According to this commitment, except for cases with reservations (of Vietnam), Vietnam and the EU will not apply any tariffs or fees for only exports but not for domestic goods, and no tariffs and fees will be imposed on exports higher than those for domestic goods. The reservation of Vietnam on export duties is set out in Annex 2d Chapter 2 of EVFTA, applicable to goods exported from Vietnam to the EU with the following main contents: \- Vietnam maintains export tariff for 57 tariff lines, including products such as sand, shale, granite, some ores and concentrates, crude oil, coal, coke, gold \... Among these products, the current tariff lines with high export tariff will be brought back to 20% within 5 years (only manganese ore will be reduced to 10%); the remaining products maintain current export duties; \- For all other products, Vietnam commits to eliminate export tariff according to a maximum schedule of 15 years. ***Commitment on non-tariff barriers*** *Technical barriers to trade (TBT)* The two Parties agree to strengthen the implementation of the rules of The Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement (TBT Agreement) of the WTO, in which Vietnam commits to enhancing the use of international standards in issuing TBT regulations. The Agreement has a separate Annex on non-tariff barriers to the automotive sector, in which Vietnam commits to recognize all technical conformity certification for EU cars according to the principles of the 1958 UNECE Agreement (United Nations standards system) five years after the EVFTA entered into force. Also, Vietnam commits to accept the label \"Made in EU\" for non-agricultural products (except for pharmaceuticals) while still accepting specific labels of origin from a specific EU country. *Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)* Vietnam and the EU reached agreement on a number of principles on SPS to facilitate trade in animal and plant products. In particular, for goods imported and exported to Vietnam, the EU\'s management entity is the competent authority of each specific EU member country (where Vietnamese goods are exported or imported), not a joint level body of the EU. The European Commission is only responsible for the general coordination, examination/inspection of the control systems and related legal systems of the member countries to ensure the uniform application of technical standards and regulations in the whole EU market *Other non-tariff measures* The Agreement also includes commitments towards reducing other tariff barriers (eg: commitments on export/import licensing, customs procedures \...) to facilitate import and export activities between the two Parties. **Trade in Service and Investment** Commitments of Vietnam and the EU in the EVFTA on service trading and investment towards creating an open and favorable investment environment for the operation of enterprises of the two Parties, in which: \- EU\'s commitment to Vietnam: Higher than EU\'s commitment in WTO and equivalent to the highest level of EU in recent EU FTAs; \- Vietnam\'s commitment to the EU: Higher than Vietnam\'s commitments in the WTO and at least equal to the highest level of openness that Vietnam offers to other partners in Vietnam\'s current FTA negotiations (including CPTPP). **Intellectual property** Intellectual property in EVFTA includes commitments on copyrights, inventions, patents, commitments related to pharmaceuticals and geographical indications \... with a higher level of protection than WTO; However, these levels are basically consistent with the current law provisions of Vietnam.