Vietnam will get the WTO membership card today, January 11. A ceremony of admitting Vietnam into the WTO will take place in Geneva, Switzerland at 3 pm, Hanoi time, or 9 am, Geneva time.
The Vietnamese Ambassador to the WTO and the members of the Vietnamese delegation, as well as the WTO Secretariat will attend the ceremony.
“There will be no party as WTO admitted Vietnam already on November 7, 2006, but there will be champagne to mark the historical milestone for Vietnam,” said Le Quang Xuan, Head of the Vietnam Delegation in Geneva.
A big bandrolle with words congratulating Vietnam as an official member of the WTO is hanging up against the wall of the WTO building in Geneva, which has never been seen in WTO history. Vietnamese officials and passing foreigners all try to take pictures with the bandrolle.
Right after becoming a full member of the WTO, a lot of commitments Vietnam has made for joining the WTO will become effective. According to the Ministry of Finance, 1,812 categories of taxes will be reduced by 30-40% on average.
The products that have high tariffs of over 30% and will see the tax reduction as of January 11 are: textile and apparel products (63%), footwear (20%), flowers and ornamental trees (25%), several kinds of vegetables (40%), vegetable oil (20-40%), cosmetics of different kinds (20-40%), home used plastics (20%), confectionaries (20-30%), processed meat (20%), paper products (10-20%), the products relating to electrical equipments (20%), and some other kinds of groceries (20-25%).
The Ministry of Trade has completed the plan on the policies Vietnam will follow in the WTO period in order to ensure the sustainable economic growth rate in the new era.
A series of solutions have been mentioned in the development plan, including the completion of the legal framework to make it fit the new conditions. Besides, the plan has also mentioned the need to raise the national competitiveness, considering this the key task of the communist party, the State and enterprises for the new period of development.
