Hanoi (VNA)ജ – A Vietnamesedelegation led by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien attendedeconomic ministerial-level consultation meetings between ASEAN and its partners - the US, Hong Kong (China), India, the European Union and Russia - held via videoconference in the framework of the 53rd ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting on September 14.

At the ASEAN-US consultation, Vietnam and ASEAN member states thanked the USGovernment for its donation of COVID-19 vaccines and other anti-pandemic assistance . They also hailed the US as the second largest trade partner of the blocwith a total trade of 309 billion USD last year, up 4.6 percent annually.

Participants took note of important progress in the implementation of the ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in 2019-2020 and the US-ASEAN Expanded Economic Engagement (E3) Initiativefor 2020-2021  focusing on e-commerce, transparency and goodpractices, ASEAN one-stop shop mechanism, trade facilitation, development ofmicro-small, small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, trade andenvironment.

ꦺ The meeting adopted a plan to carry out the TIFA  and the  E3 Initiative in 2021-2022, with focuses on e-commerce, transparency and good practices, ASEAN single window, trade facilitation, development of micro-small, small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture and the environment.

Regarding ties with Hong Kong (China), ministers welcomed the completion of ratification of theASEAN – Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement and ASEAN – Hong Kong Investment Agreement by all stakeholders. They instructed working groups to work on remaining issues related to rules on origin and investment in those agreements.

In particular, Hong Kong (China)expressed a wish to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)that ASEAN signed with the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, New Zealand, Australia andChina on November 15, 2020.

♍ At the meeting with India, ministers lauded all related countries for completing theapproval of the ASEAN – India Investment Agreement and took note of progress indiscussing the scale of review to upgrade the ASEAN-India Trade in GoodsAgreement (ATIGA), towards further facilitating trade for enterprises.

About ASEAN-EU economic ties, the ministers spoke highly of the EU’s support for the ASEAN Economic Community via programmesand initiatives within the framework of the ASEAN Regional Integration Support by the EU (ARISEPlus) and the Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (E-READI). The event also adopted the ASEAN-EU Trade and Investment Work Programme for the 2020-2021period and directed senior economic officials of both sides to continue with discussion so as to early reach consensus on the draft ASEAN-EUTrade and Investment Framework Agreements to make way for negotiations. The EU is now the second biggestinvestor in ASEAN with a total capital of 7.6 billion USD and a significanttrade partner of the bloc with bilateral trade revenue totalling 258 billion USD lastyear. During the ASEAN-Russia consultation, the ministers adopted the revised ASEAN-Russia Trade andInvestment Cooperation Roadmap and the ASEAN-Russia Trade and InvestmentCooperation Work Programme for the 2021-2025 period, with focuses on trade andindustry; micro-small, small and medium-sized enterprises; sci-tech, innovationand intellectual property; climate change, energy, transportation, agro-fisheries,tourism, culture, human resource development and health care, sustainabledevelopment and digital economy. At the consultation meetings, the ministers also spent time to talk with representatives of the ASEAN-US, ASEAN-India, ASEAN-EUand ASEAN-Russia Business Councils to grasp recommendations of the privatesector regarding trade facilitation in the region./.