HCM City (VNA) – The Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will bring more opportunitiesthan challenges to businesses, so they should swiftly make use of this deal topromote export, heard a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on March 26.

The CPTPP, which officially took effect inVietnam on January 14, gathers 11 member states, namely Australia, Brunei,Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, andVietnam that altogether make up 13.5 percent of the global GDP.

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the WTO andintegration centre at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), saidthe CPTPP opens up chances for Vietnam to access new markets that it hasn’tsigned bilateral trade agreements with like Canada, Mexico and Peru. It willalso help the country seek new partners in the field of public procurement intraditional markets.

Competition in the global market is inevitable,even with or without the CPTPP, and this pressure affects all enterprises, notonly Vietnamese ones.

However, competition with foreign firms willhelp Vietnamese manufacturers diversify material supply sources and productiontechnology while reducing input costs. Food, beverage, textile-garment,footwear, plastics and transport vehicle industries are forecast to have majorchances to promote production and exports.

Additionally, the CPTPP will also fostere-commerce and create more chances for Vietnamese firms to take part indistribution services, Trang said.

She added Vietnam and other members havecomplementary export structures while their targeted market segments aredifferent, so their products do not directly compete with one another. On theother hand, the CPTPP enforcement also means the Government will furtherimprove the business climate and provide more favourable conditions for trade,thus facilitating the development of enterprises.

A problem facing Vietnamese companies amid theCPTPP implementation is how to capitalise on opportunities, especially thecapability to meet rules of origin to benefit from preferential treatment andovercome non-tariff barriers.

At the workshop, lawyer Vu Xuan Hung, deputyhead of the arbitration affairs division at the VCCI branch in HCM City, saidVietnamese businesses’ capitalisation of free trade agreements remains modest.

Tariff reduction commitments under the CPTPP arevery high. However, there are even more non-tariff barriers that are hard tosatisfy than tariff ones, he said, noting that many countries have set uptechnical standards to hamper the import of certain commodities. If enterprisesfail to meet these standards, they will be unable to export goods, let alonepreferential tariff treatment under the agreement.

Hung added if businesses actively improve theirproducts’ quality to meet other CPTPP members’ requirements, opportunities toexpand markets are vast.

Participants in the event urged local firms havea good grasp of the CPTPP’s articles and devise suitable production strategiesso as to overcome non-tariff barriers and promote exports right at present.-VNA