Reference
Submitted by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
The draft Free Trade Agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and its member-states and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereafter – Agreement) was developed in accordance with the decision taken by the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of heads of state on 19 December 2012.
Implementation of the Agreement will boost bilateral trade and promote trade and economic ties between its participants; it will also solve the problem of involving the Eurasian Economic Union in integration processes in the Asia-Pacific region.
The draft Agreement contains provisions on tariff liberalisation between EAEU member-states and Vietnam that will reduce or eliminate import customs duties for most goods on the trade classifications used by the signatories. At the same time, the signatories of the Agreement will keep tariff protections in place for a number of the most sensitive items.
In addition, the draft Agreement stipulates additional rules pertaining to sanitary and phytosanitary regulation, technical regulation, customs administration, the use of protective measures, criteria for determining sufficient processing/finishing of goods, transparency, competition, and electronic technology in trade.
The draft Agreement was considered and approved at the meeting of the Subcommission on Economic Integration of the Government Commission on Economic Development and Integration on 13 May 2015.
The signed directive also approved:
- Protocol No. 1 to the Agreement between Russia and Vietnam (on services and investments);
- Protocol No. 2 to the Agreement between Russia and Vietnam (on correlating obligations under the Agreement with WTO requirements).
In addition, a motion was passed to sign the Agreement between Russia and Vietnam by means of an exchange of letters (on Vietnam guaranteeing most-favoured-nation treatment to Russian service providers and investors).
According to item 1a of article 15 of the federal law On International Treaties of the Russian Federation, after the Agreement is signed it is subject to ratification, as it contains rules that differ from Russian law.
The draft Agreement was considered and approved at the Russian Government meeting on 21 May 2015.