Vietnam and Israel signed the VIFTA Free Trade Agreement

The VIFTA Agreement was launched in negotiations in the context of bilateral relations between Vietnam increasingly developing well, especially in the field of economics and trade.

 Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang received leaders of Israeli businesses. (Photo: Vu Hoi/VNA)

On July 25, at the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, in the presence of Prime Minister of the State of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tran Luu Quang, Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam Nam Nguyen Hong Dien and Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat signed the Vietnam-Israel Free Trade Agreement (VIFTA).

The VIFTA Agreement was launched in negotiations in the context of bilateral relations between Vietnam increasingly developing well, especially in the field of economics and trade.

The signing of VIFTA marks the result of tireless efforts of both countries after a period of 7 years with 12 negotiation sessions and is even more meaningful in the context that the two countries are conducting many practical activities on the occasion of the 20th anniversary. Celebrate 30 years of establishing diplomatic relations.

In particular, Israel is the first country in West Asia with which Vietnam signed a free trade agreement (FTA) and Vietnam is also the first country in Southeast Asia with which Israel signed an FTA.

Israel is currently one of Vietnam's leading trade, investment and labor cooperation partners in West Asia.

The economic structures of Vietnam and Israel are complementary, the import and export products of the two countries not only do not compete directly but also complement each other.

The signing and implementation of VIFTA will create a favorable premise for Vietnam to promote the export of strong products to Israel, and at the same time have the opportunity to access Israeli high-tech products, contributing to reducing the production and business costs , improving the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods.

The Agreement includes 15 Chapters and a number of appendices attached to the chapters with basic contents such as trade in goods, services-investment, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade (TBT), and other provisions. sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), customs, trade defense, government procurement, legal-institutional.

With the achievement of agreements in all chapters of the agreement, especially the strong commitment of the two sides to increase the rate of trade liberalization with the overall liberalization rate by the end of the commitment roadmap of the Agreement. Israel's is 92.7% of tariff lines while Vietnam's is 85.8% of tariff lines. Both sides expect that two-way trade will have a remarkable growth, soon reaching 3 billion USD and higher. next time.

Thereby, not only contributing to increasing the two-way trade turnover of goods, VIFTA is expected to be a lever to help strengthen cooperation between the two countries in investment, services, digital transformation, and technology. …

In addition, the signing and implementation of VIFTA will create a favorable premise for Vietnam to promote the export of strong products not only to Israel but also have opportunities to access other markets in the Middle East and North. Africa and Southern Europe.

In the opposite direction, besides Vietnam's market of over 100 million people, Israeli goods and technology have the opportunity to access the markets of ASEAN, Asia-Pacific countries and major economies in the region. 16 FTAs that Vietnam has participated in.

Regarding the social aspect, in the near future, based on Israel's special strengths in technology and finance when combined with Vietnam's strengths in investment environment, market size and network of 16 FTAs. that our country has participated in, VIFTA will bring many business cooperation and investment opportunities for Israeli businesses in Vietnam. Thereby, contributing to creating jobs for a portion of workers in fields that Israel is interested in and investing in.

According to VNA