Vietnam’s National Assembly has passed legislation officially, for its part, confirming the UK’s ascension to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership–the CPTPP. Vietnam is the sixth member state to ratify the UK’s ascension.
Notably, Vietnam and the UK already have the UK Vietnam Free Trade Agreement which is almost identical to the European Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. In this light, the CPTPP will not make a huge difference to bilateral trade between the two countries. That said, there will be a few additional advantages including:
- Import tariffs on engines, medicines, chocolate, dairy products, and port entering Vietnam will be reduced faster.
- Duties on beef will be eliminated when the agreement comes into force.
- Pork and chicken import duties will be eliminated over 3 and 5 years, respectively.
- There will be a separate duty-free tariff-rate quota–or TRQ–on long-grain milled rice for Vietnam. Over eight years, the volume will increase incrementally with a cap of 17,500 tonnes.
- Vietnam along with Peru, Chile, Brunei, and Malaysia will have just one shared, duty-free TRQ on sugar. The volume will increase incrementally for 10 years and be capped at 25,000 tonnes.
- Stays in Vietnam of up to six months will be granted for UK business persons as opposed to the three months currently permitted.
Vietnam’s exports to the UK have reached US$2.86 billion so far this year.
See also: Vietnam Exports Tracker: May 2024 Update [data set]