On 30th June 2019, EU Commissioner for Trade Mrs. Cecilia Malmstrom, together with Romanian Minister in charge of business, commerce and business Mr. Stefan-Radu Oprea represent the EU to sign the EU – Vietnam FTA (EVFTA) in Hanoi. Mr. Tran Quoc Khanh, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Trade signed the EVFTA on behalf of Vietnam.
On 26 June 2018, the EVFTA was split into two separate agreements, one on trade and one on investment. In August 2018, EU and Vietnam completed the legal review of the EVFTA and the EU – Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). The EVFTA needs to be ratified by the European Commission and European Parliament while the EVIPA must be additionally ratified by the Parliament of each EU member countries.
The EVFTA and the EVIPA are said to bring the best advantages and benefits ever for enterprises, employees and consumers in both EU and Vietnam. Vietnam’s GDP is expected to increase by 10-15% and exports are predicted to rise by 30-40% in the next 10 years. Meanwhile, the real wages of skilled laborers could rise up to 12%, while the real salaries of common workers could increase 13%.
The EVFTA is the first comprehensive and ambitious trade and investment agreements that the EU has ever concluded with a developing country in Asia. It is the second agreement in the ASEAN region after Singapore and it will intensify the bilateral relations between Vietnam and the EU. Vietnam will have access to a potential market of more than 500 million people and a total GDP of USD15,000 billion (accounting for 22% of global GDP).
Market access for goods
The EU agreed to eliminate duties for 84% of the tariff lines for goods imported from Vietnam immediately at the entry into force of the FTA. Within 7 years from the effective date of the FTA, more than 99% of the tariff lines will have been eliminated for Vietnam.
Vietnam will benefit more from the EVFTA compared with other FTAs since Vietnam and the EU are considered to be two supporting and complementary markets: Vietnam exports goods that the EU cannot or does not produce itself (i.e., fishery products, tropical fruits, etc.) while the products imported from the EU are also those Vietnam cannot produce domestically.
Government procurement
Vietnam has one of the highest ratios of public investment-to-GDP in the world (39% annually from 1995). However, until now, Vietnam has not agreed to its government procurement being covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) of the WTO. Now, for the first time, Vietnam has undertaken to do so in the EVFTA.
The FTA commitments on Government Procurement mainly deal with the requirement to treat EU bidders, or domestic bidders with EU investment capital, equally with Vietnamese bidders when a Government purchases goods or requests a service worth over the specified threshold. Vietnam undertakes to publish information on tender in a timely manner, allow sufficient time for bidders to prepare for and submit bids and maintain the confidentiality of tenders. The FTA also requires its Parties to assess bids based on fair and objective principles, evaluate and award bids only based on criteria set out in notices and tender documentation and create an effective regime for complaints and settling disputes, and so on. These rules require Parties to ensure that their bidding procedures match the commitments and protect their own interests, thus helping Vietnam to solve its problem of bids being won by cheap but low-quality service providers.
Labor protection
EVFTA requires member states to comply with the following fundamental principles of the ILO:
- the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
- the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
- the effective abolition of child labour; and
- the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
This means that the member states must legislate for example minimum wages, hours of work and safety and health security standards. However, it is not settled in these agreements to what extent those rights must be legislated. As a result it is up to the member states to establish a minimum wage which might be ridiculously low.
As Vietnam already sets out minimum wages, the most important ILO standard for Vietnamese labour law is the freedom of association, i.e. the freedom of labourers to found an independent trade union, to choose a trade union they want to be a member in and the right of the trade unions to affiliate with each other.
The EVFTA names the right of freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining as one of the most important standards of ILO in the published agreement text. The parties are obliged to make continued and sustained efforts towards ratifying, to the extent it has not yet done so, fundamental ILO conventions. This is important for Vietnam, as although it is a member of the ILO, it has not ratified ILO Convention No. 87 and No. 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining respectively.
Enforcement of ISDS
This is now covered in the EVIPA. The term “investment” under the EVIPA is limited to kind of asset which is owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by an investor of EU/ Vietnam in the territory of Vietnam/ EU, which has the characteristics of an investment (for example, commitment of capital or other resources, the expectation of gain or profit, the assumption of risk and a certain duration). In disputes regarding the investment, an investor is allowed to bring the dispute to the Investment Tribunal for settlement (Investor-to-State dispute settlement mechanism – ISDS). This means the investors do not need to lobby its Government to file the case on their behalf. To ensure fairness and independence of the arbitration court, a permanent international investment tribunal with 9 members, 3 nationals appointed from each of the EU and Vietnam together with 3 nationals appointed from third countries. Cases will be heard by a 3-member Tribunal selected by the Chairman of the Tribunal in a random and unpredictable way. This is also to ensure consistent rulings in similar cases, thus making the dispute settlement more predictable. The EVIPA also allows a sole Tribunal member where the claimant is a small or medium-sized enterprise or the compensation of damaged claims is relatively low. This is a flexible approach considering that Vietnam is still a developing country.
In case either disputing parties disagree with the decision of the Tribunal, it has another chance to appeal it to the Appeal Tribunal. While this is different from the common arbitration proceeding, it is quite similar to the 2-level dispute settlement mechanism in the WTO (Panel and Appellate Body). We believe that this mechanism could save time and cost for the whole proceedings.
The final settlement is binding and enforceable without question from the local courts regarding its validity, except for a five-year period following the entry into force of the FTA for Vietnam.
However, please note that ISDS does not automatically apply in all disputes regarding the investment covered under the IPA. In fact, parties to the disputes can agree to solve the dispute by other means, for example, international commercial arbitration, local courts, action in the framework of the World Trade Organization or any other actions under any other international agreement to which both EU and Vietnam are party. It is important that you choose the right forum to maximize your chance of winning the case. We are very happy to assist you!
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Please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Oliver Massmann under [email protected] if you have any questions on the above. Dr. Oliver Massmann is the General Director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!