WTO chief sees Vietnam accession within two years

WTO chief sees Vietnam accession within two years

World Trade Organization director general Mike Moore said in
Hanoi Friday that he hoped communist Vietnam could become a
member of the global body by late 2003.

This would be in time to take part in the negotiations on the
new world trade round launched earlier this month.

"I would be enormously disappointed ... if we can't see
Vietnam at the ministerial conference in two years' time at the
table in those negotiations," Moore told a news conference at the
end of a 24-hour visit.

Asked by AFP afterwards if he had meant he hoped to see
Vietnam as a full member at those talks, he said: "Yes."

Moore said he had been impressed by the level of commitment to
WTO accession he had found in his talks with Prime Minister Phan
Van Khai and other senior officials.

Ahead of his talks with the WTO chief Thursday evening, Trade
Minister Vu Khoan had said he would like Vietnam to join
"tomorrow" if possible.

The final ratification of a landmark trade agreement with the
United States, which will lead to the lifting of punitive U.S.
tariffs, had given the communist authorities the confidence to
press ahead, Moore said.

"There was a determination and a vision and a confidence
because of the American agreement as a stepping stone.

"When they saw tariffs falling from 40 or 50 percent down to
five or three percent, they saw the economic advantages to them."

The WTO chief warned that nobody should underestimate the
difficulties of accession, which would involve negotiations with
all the body's different members, some 143 countries by the end
of this year.

He said he would be working closely with the World Bank and
United Nations Development Program to see what technical
assistance could be provided in the arduous process that lay
ahead. -- AFP