Vietnam wants time before joining AFTA

Vietnam wants time before joining AFTA

SINGAPORE (AFP): Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam
said yesterday that Hanoi should be given a few years to merge
into a regional free trade plan after joining the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July this year.

"I have no idea how long it will take. Perhaps three or four
years. ASEAN member countries also have the same feeling," Cam
said at the end of a four-day official visit here.

Cam confirmed that Vietnam would formally become ASEAN's
seventh member when foreign ministers of the regional group's
current members, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand meet in Bandar Seri Begawan in July.

"Our membership received the approval of not only all ASEAN
members but also other countries," Cam, who visited Australia and
the Philippines before coming here, said.

But he said that differences in economic development which
once threatened to keep Hanoi out for a few more years meant that
a transition period was necessary before Hanoi could fully
participate in the ASEAN Free Trade Area or AFTA.

Under the AFTA plan, the ASEAN countries have begun
dismantling tariffs on thousands of products to reduce them to no
more than five percent and carve out a free trade area by 2003.

Cam said that the transition period would give Hanoi time to
bring its tax and customs laws and procedures in line with
practices in ASEAN's other members.

Vietnamese officials have been attending the annual ASEAN
foreign ministers meetings as observers since 1993 when Hanoi
signed the ASEAN Treaty of Amity, agreeing to resolve disputes
peacefully after years of enmity with its neighbors.

Hanoi's membership is expected to further strengthen its
growing trade and investment links with ASEAN countries which
have invested more than US$1.5 billion in their communist
neighbor, analysts said.

Cam said that Vietnam also wanted to join the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum after a three-year freeze on
membership by the 18-member grouping is lifted next year.

"Although we cannot join now there have been suggestions that
we participate in some APEC committees. Our objective is to
integrate into the region as well as the world community," he
said.

Cam, who met Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong earlier yesterday,
said that Singapore would help set up an industrial park in
Vietnam and help develop and rehabilitate Vietnam's
infrastructure including its ports.