DOI:

Abstract

"Vietnam started opening its markets and integrating its economy to the world and regional markets from 1986 on. In 1997, the Foreign Investment Law was promulgated and up till now, Vietnam has joined many economic organizations,  at  both  regional  and  international levels, such as ASEAN, APEC and WTO; established trading relations with some 180 countries and territories; and exchanged 86 bilateral trading  agreements  and  46  investment  agreements with many countries. Vietnam’s accession to the WTO in 2007 became a landmark in its international integration. In  2008,  Vietnam’s  foreign  trade  made  good progress although the world economy experienced many ups and downs. It kept fulfilling WTO commitments and took part in WTO activities; cooperated  with  ASEAN  countries  to  replace  the CEPT-AFTA with the ATIGA. At the end of 2008, it signed an important economic agreement with Japan after two years of negotiation. At present, Vietnam keeps perfecting the legal infrastructure for foreign trading relations by negotiating and signing bilateral and multilateral agreements, and opening its markets to the fullest as required to get recognized as a market economy. At the same time, Vietnam carries out its commitments on investment and trading relations as required by the WTO, AFTA, Vietnam – American Agreements. The international integration brings about opportunities to expand import and export for local companies and develop Vietnam’s foreign trade. Before 1995, Vietnam lived on foreign aid and its exports and imports didn’t reflect the nature of its economic growth. For this reason, this article only analyze the Vietnam’s foreign trade in the years from 1996 up to now and emphasis is put in the period after Vietnam’s accession to the WTO."

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