With the new Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, ratified on April 16 by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, 92 per cent of goods circulated between the two countries will be no longer taxed within the next 10 years.
Under the comprehensive free trade agreement, which will take effect this July, Vietnam’s farm produce, garments and marine products, as well as Japan’s industrial commodities, including electronics and automobile equipment, will enjoy tax reductions or exemptions.
Initially, Japan will work with Vietnam to help train Vietnamese nurses in Japan, develop allied industries, establish a bilateral dialogue mechanism for the garment and textile sector, improve food hygiene and safety inspection capacity, and perfect quality standard system.
The agreement is providing more opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and fishery companies to access the Japanese market, said Le Trieu Dung, head of the ASEAN Section of the Industry and Trade Ministry’s Multilateral Policy Department.
Twenty three out of 30 types of Vietnamese agro-forestry-fishery commodities with the largest export value will be exempt from tax, he said.
Another official from the Ministry’s Asia-Pacific Department said Vietnamese enterprises wishing to access the Japanese market should pay attention to removing such difficulties as lack of information about the Japanese market, lack of experience in trading with Japanese companies, severe regulations on food hygiene and safety for agricultural exports as well as strict requirements on product quality.-