Ha
Noi, Jan. 18 (VNA)-
Shoppers in the US can now find an array of Vietnamese farm
produce in the US market and Vietnamese fruit now far outsells
Chinese fruit and is approaching Brazil, said Charlene Barshefsky,
Senior International Partner of a reputed Washington-based
consultation firm.
A
senior expert from the Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dott LLP
company, Barshefsky told business excecutives, scientists and
correnspondents from both Viet Nam and the US at a meeting on Jan.
18 of this success to
demontrate the fine development and bright prospects for trade
relations between Viet Nam and the US.
Barshefsky,
who served as the US trade representative in Viet Nam from
1997-2001 and was an architect of the Viet Nam-US bilateral trade
agreement (BTA), said the two countries have enjoyed great
progress in their bilateral economic relations after four years of
implementing the BTA, with high growth in trade and investment,
while logistic services to link the two countries are now
emerging, as reflected in the opening of commercial flights to
Viet Nam by United Airlines and the upcoming inauguration of the
Viet Nam Airlines' commercial flights to the US, she said.
Barshefsky
also said that Viet Nam has recorded an increase of 4.2 billion
USD in export revenues in relations with the US over the past four
years, surpassing the levels achieved by traditional customers of
the US such as Turkey, South Africa and Poland, and is catching up
with major partners such as Australia and Spain.
Annually,
the US exports goods worth billions of USD to Viet Nam, mainly
machinery, equipment and production materials. The number of US
enterprises doing business in Viet Nam is also on the increase.
The US Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam said that almost 300 of its
members are involved in many industries, in the exploitation of
natural resources and in providing services.
According
to Barshefsky, the relationship between the two peoples has been
further strengthened with the number of Americans visiting Viet
Nam rising from 200,000 in 1999 to around 300,000 in 2004. A
recent poll conducted by a well-known polling firm, Zogby
International, finds two-thirds of Americans
to be pleased by the growth in US-Viet Nam trade since the
conclusion of the BTA. A similar proportion support Viet Nam's
membership of the World Trade Organisation. No nation, other than
the UK, has received such a high level of support in the US,
stressed Barshefsky.
From
the late 1980s to the ratification of the BTA in 2001, the two
governments and peoples have worked through a series of issues
such as the MIA search and recovery programme, the normalisation
of political and diplomatic relations, national reconciliation and
the Vietnamese American community's participation in business,
humanitarian work and investment in Viet Nam. In general, these
were successful efforts, reflecting a set of perceptions shared by
both governments and by the public in terms of emotional
perceptions, pragmatic considerations and strategic issues.
From
the US's point of view, Barshefsky affirmed that Viet Nam is the
fourth largest Eastern Asian nation whose role is significant for
regional security and economic development. With a relatively
young population of over 80 million people, Viet Nam is becoming a
potential export market for the US as the country has a skilled
labour force and lies between China and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).-Enditem
