On 8-9 July 2010 in Buon Me Thuat city, the Daklak Department of Science and Technology, in cooperation with Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality and the USAID/STAR Vietnam Project, held the training seminar on “Sustainable Voluntary Standards”.

USAID/ STAR Economist and Professor at National Economic University, Dr. Vu Huy was among the distinguished scholars and diplomats who spoke at a conference exploring the economic and social challenges facing Vietnam on Friday and Saturday, October 17-18 at Princeton University in New Jersey, USA. Mr. Paul Krugman, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics also spoke at the conference.  

STAR Vietnam is a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide demand-driven technical assistance to Vietnam in implementing the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization agreements and the Trade Investment Framework Agreement in cooperation with the Office of the Government of Vietnam. STAR has been in operation since October 2001. The project was extended in 2006 for another three to five years.

After a lot of effort of the Drafting committee and support from project USAID/STAR, STAMEQ had finished Draft 3 of The Law on Measurement. According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Diep, the Drafting committee made reference to international experiences and practices, as well as considered these factors to suit Viet Nam context. The draft also made good the shortcomings and inadequateness of The Ordinances on Metrology 1999.

The Labor Code 1994 mainly regulated industrial relation in SOEs. Since then, equitization of SOEs, massive foreign investment and increased international integration have dramatically transformed the economy.

Vietnam has made tremendous and successful efforts to modernize its legal system and accede to the WTO in January 2007 and then to implement its commitments under the WTO Agreements and the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).

  

  

Vietnam’s accession to the WTO on January 11, 2007 was a landmark step in its socio-legal-economic development. Building upon the task started in late 2001 with implementation of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), Vietnam reviewed and in large part rewrote its laws and regulations on commercial activity and judicial procedure. Profoundly, Vietnam used the BTA/WTO as a catalyst for systematically modernizing its legal environment and institutions to be more in line with international best practice and to be better able to support market-driven, private-sector growth in a rapidly internationalizing economy. An Economic Report on Trade, Investment and Economic Activity in Vietnam for the period of 2007-2008 was prepared by Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) under Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment and the U.S. Agency for International Development-Funded Support for Trade Acceleration (STAR) Project.

  

Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement (the TBT Handbook) launched by Vietnamese Directorate for Standards and Quality (STAMEQ). This handbook is unique, as it is the first document to bring together key information from global sources and networks on standards. It will enable agencies, organizations, and businesses to speak a common language on standards, metrology, conformity assessment, and the technical barriers to trade. It was developed with technical expertise from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) STAR-Vietnam project at the request of the Government of Vietnam.

US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has recently launched a new Vietnamese language website that has some materials translated into Vietnamese.

The U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement entered into force on December 10, 2001. This historic Agreement opens a new chapter in the relationship of the two countries and serves as a stepping stone for WTO accession.

Please find attached key WTO Agreements which have been published by STAR Vietnam and the National Committee for International Economic Cooperation.