Vietnam Meets US’s Criteria for Market Economy
Attorney Eric Emerson from the law firm Steptoe LLP, based in Washington (USA) and representing the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, emphasizes that Vietnam should be upgraded to a market economy status as it has met the 6 criteria used by the US Department of Commerce to evaluate whether a country has a market-oriented economy.
According to US regulations, there are 6 criteria to consider whether an economy is market-oriented, including: currency conversion level; wage negotiations between workers and employers; foreign investment levels in economic activities; state and private ownership issues; government control over certain resources and prices; and other factors.
Vietnam has demonstrated its effectiveness in these criteria well, even better than other countries that have previously been granted market economy status. Vietnam also interferes less in state-owned enterprises than India, while being more open to foreign investment than Indonesia, Canada, and the Philippines.
To date, 72 countries have recognized Vietnam as a market economy, including major economies such as the UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan. Vietnam has also participated in 16 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements with over 60 partners, spanning across continents.
Therefore, Vietnam should shed the “non-market” label with recent economic reforms, this label is detrimental to the increasingly close bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the US. Early recognition by the US of Vietnam’s market economy status will contribute to concretizing the commitments of the two countries’ top leaders, enhancing the Comprehensive Partnership between Vietnam and the US, thereby promoting economic and trade relations and bringing tangible benefits to the businesses and people of both countries.
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