Summary of the 9th Round of Negotiations on the Japan-Vietnam Economic Partnership Agreement

September 19, 2008

The 9th round of negotiations on the Japan-Vietnam Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was held from September 17 (Wed) to 19 (Fri), 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Participating in this round of the negotiations were : for the Japanese side, Mr. Jun Yokota, Representative of the Government of Japan for Japan-Vietnam and Japan-Switzerland Economic Partnership Agreements Negotiations and the Chief Negotiator for Japan, and officials from relevant ministries and agencies of Japan; and, for the Vietnamese side, Mr. Phan The Rue, Former Vice Minister of Trade, the Chief Negotiator for Vietnam, and officials from relevant ministries of Vietnam.
A summary of the discussion is as follows:

(1) In the round, the overall negotiations were assessed in the plenary meeting at the chief-negotiator-level and issues such as trade in goods including market access and rules of origin, trade in services, movement of natural persons, general and final provisions were discussed in respective experts groups. Both sides have come to share common views on most of the major issues.

(2) Both sides decided to make a progress in the works toward achieving an agreement in principle as soon as possible.

(END)