20
ventures (since 2007); establish 100% foreign
owned enterprises, set up branches (from 2012).
However, there are also restrictions on foreign
capital and business services. In terms of banking,
Vietnam has allowed the establishment of foreign
commercial branches, joint-venture banks and
100% foreign owned banks in Vietnam since 2007.
However, regulations are carefully implemented in
order to protect the legitimate interests of domestic
commercial banks (limited capital contribution,
provided services ...).
Other financial commitments:
- Customs valuation: Vietnam committed to
implement the Customs Valuation Agreement on
the framework of the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade
Agreement andWTO. Inprinciple, the value of import
tax was determined equal to the transaction value.
- Price policy: Vietnam committed to implement
price policy towards autonomy and enterprises’
self-pricing based on market principles; Vietnam
will continue to maintain a public list of goods and
services under the state’s control as well as any
changes of this list after accessing WTO.
- Other commitments such as ensuring the
transparency of data on reforms, equalization of
state-owned enterprises, purchasing and bidding
policies of state-owned enterprises;
- Benefit Policy: Vietnam committed to remove
direct supports from the state budget for export or
import substitution - primarily for export rewards;
Vietnam also committed to maintain the five-year
transitional period (except for textile industry) for
10YEARS OF VIETNAM’SWTO ACCESSION:
ISSUES FOR THE FINANCIAL SECTOR
LE QUANG THUAN, PhD., TRAN THI QUYNH HOA, MA., TRAN THI HA, MA.
- Institute of Strategies and Financial Policies (Ministry of Finance)*
The accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) borught about many opportunities for Vietnam
to access world markets, promoted economic reforms and economic growth, and contributed to poverty
reduction, facilitated trade, investment and liberalized finance. However, the challenges which Vietnam
is facing are not small with the adherence to a lot of commitments. This compliance has influenced the
financial sector, and posed challenges on executing policies, such as fiscal policy, price management
policy, financial service market management…
Keywords: Trade, commodities, finance, financial markets, financial services
Received: December 22
nd
, 2017
Revised: January 4
th
, 2018
Accepted for publication: January 5
th
, 2018
Vietnam’s major commitments in theWTO
In terms of tariffs:
When taking part into WTO,
Vietnamcommitted tograduallyreduce theaverage
tariff rate from 17.4% in 2007 to 13.4% in 2007 in
five to seven years. Basically, by 2015, Viet Nam
cut tariffs in accordance with WTO commitments;
most items belong to tariff reduction category. In
particular, tariffs of some commodities such as
automobile, motorbike and their components will
decrease by 2018.
Vietnam agreed with the ceiling of the entire
tariff. Vietnam committed to cut about 3,800 tariff
lines (accounting for 35.5% of customs duty) from
2007 to 2019 (tax rate cut, time point cut depend on
each tariff line).
In terms of financial services:According toWTO,
commitments in financial services are specified
by sub-sectors: insurance, banking and securities,
especially focuseing on: (i) provided services; (ii)
Forms of foreign commercial presence in Vietnam.
Accordingly, in the field of insurance, Vietnam
committed to allow foreign insurance companies
to open representative offices, joint ventures (since
2007); establish 100% foreign-invested enterprises
in Vietnam (since 2008); Open branches (from
2012). However, there are some restrictions on
foreign capital and business services. In the field
of securities, Vietnam allowed foreign securities
companies to open representative offices, joint
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