Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Dec. 6 (VNA) -- US Ambassador to Viet Nam Raymond F. Burghardt on Friday described the first year of implementing the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) as being "off to a good start, marking a new era in the US-Viet Nam bilateral relations".

The ambassador made the comment at a press conference at the US embassy Annex in Ha Noi today to mark the first anniversary of the BTA going into effect (Dec. 10), which was just five days before he took office as the mission chief in the country.

"The BTA has now become a cornerstone of the normal relations between the two countries, which has lifted many economic barriers that existed for quite a long time between our two countries," the ambassador pointed out.

He stressed "The BTA has brought clear benefits to both sides over the past year. There has really been a boom in two-way trade and growing optimism, regarding current and future economic relations".

"Vietnamese exports to the US were more than doubled in the first nine months of 2002, compared to the period a year before, and worth about 1.5 billion USD," he said.

Meanwhile, he added "US exports to Viet Nam were also up about 30 percent, compared to the same period of last year and in the first nine months, worth 343 million USD".

Both sides have taken many positive steps toward the realisation of all provisions of the BTA, covering all trade in goods, trade in services and other areas as well, according to the US ambassador.

The US immediately opened its market wide for all Vietnamese goods and has cut import tariffs from 40 percent to 3 percent on average for Viet Nam, he said, adding that in the last year, Viet Nam has also reduced some tariffs on some US goods and has taken some actions in terms of legislation needed in some key areas under the BTA obligation.

However, he also touched upon some areas in which progress has been slow such as questions "related to transparency, investor protection and intellectual property rights".

"We've seen that many American companies are now more interested in Viet Nam than they have been in previous years," he said, stressing that there are great opportunities for American firms to do their business in Viet Nam.--