Australia supports Economic Reform in Vietnam (Aus4Reform)

Publications - Reports

22/8/2018

Report: The impact of regional free trade agreement on the Vietnamese agricultural sectors and regional economies

Report: The impact of regional free trade agreement on the Vietnamese agricultural sectors and regional economies

REPORT: THE IMPACT OF REGIONAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS ON THE VIETNAMESE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR AND REGIONAL ECONOMIES

Vietnam began its dramatic reform process, moving from a centrally planned closed
economy in 1986. Four years later, Vietnam signed its first trade deal with a Western
partner: a textile trade agreement with the EU (Delegation of the European Union to
Vietnam, 2015). Since then, Vietnam has quickly integrated into the world economy: it gained ASEAN membership in 1995 (Association of Southeast Asian Nation, 2015), signed a bilateral trade agreement with the US in 2001 (Embassy of the United States, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2015) and eventually joined the WTO in 2007 (World Trade Organisation, 2015). Vietnam, in other words, quickly turned itself from a closed economy to a very open economy with annual growth in export and import turnovers averaging 20.6% and 16.7% respectively during the period from 1986-2014 (see Table 1), and a total export-import turnover ratio to GDP of 154.5% in 2014 (Asian Development Bank, 2015). Currently, Vietnam has a trade relationship with more than 200 countries and regions in the world (General Statistics Office, 2006).

Link PDF