US Shares Praise, Critiques During WTO Vietnam Trade Review

The U.S. praised Vietnam for its role in the World Trade Organization fisheries negotiations and its fight against transshipment, but said it has concerns about sanitary and phytosanitary measures in Vietnam that in the U.S. view are unwarranted barriers to trade.

David Bisbee, chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Mission to the WTO, spoke on April 27 as part of a regular trade policy review of Vietnam at the WTO. “We have posed a number of questions on food safety, pre-clearance and post-clearance inspections, animal health, maximum residue limits, pesticides, as well as the risk assessment and the proposed domestic ban for glyphosate,” he said. “The United States continues to encourage Viet Nam to provide notifications required by the SPS Agreement at an early stage to ensure a reasonable period of time for consideration of comments prior to finalizing laws and implementing regulations.”

On fisheries subsidies, Bisbee noted that Vietnam has already adopted disciplines on fisheries subsidies under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and said he hopes the organization will achieve a meaningful agreement on curbing distorting fishing subsidies.