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| VIETNAM PLANS KEY TRADE PACT VOTE AND UNITED STATES BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY ROADSHOW |
| David Brunnstrom of the Hanoi bureau of Reuters reports that on Friday a senior official of Vietnam's National Assembly said the govermental body is expected to debate and approve a historic trade pact with the United States. |
| Brunnstrom reports that a foreign diplomat and a Vietnamese trade official said Hanoi was planning a major roadshow in the United States to highlight trade opportunities in Vietnam in mid December, once the pact was ratified by the assembly. |
| The trade delegation to the United States is expected be led by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and include Trade Minister Vu Khoan and Investment Minister Tran Xuan Gia. |
| Hoang Tuan Dung, general secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said the idea was to showcase business opportunities for trade and investment. |
| Among other events and meetings, Vietnam would host meetings involving itself and five other countries involved in International Monetary Fund-World Bank funded poverty reduction programmes -- Indonesia, East Timor, Laos, Cambodia and Mongolia. |
| Former Vietnam War enemies Hanoi and Washington signed their trade agreement in July 2000 after years of negotiations. The pact has already been ratified by the United States. |
| It will grant access to the U.S. market to Vietnamese exporters at the same low tariffs enjoyed by most other countries and gradually open up Vietnam to U.S. service providers in a wide range of fields like telecommunications and banking. |
| VCCI's Dung said Vietnamese exports that would benefit included handicrafts, seafood, textiles and high-tech goods. |
| He said local monopolies such as in telecoms and energy would still have several years to improve efficiency to prepare for the onset of foreign competition. |
| Vietnam is currently one of only a few countries that do not have normal trade relations with the United States, meaning that average tariffs on its products are 40 percent -- more than 10 times the levels imposed on other countries. |
| If properly implemented, diplomat say the pact should ease Hanoi's eventual accession to the World Trade Organisation, the WTO. |
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