On July 25, 2023, at the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, witnessed by Prime Minister of the State of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tran Luu Quang, Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam Nguyen Hong Dien and Minister of Economy and Industry of Israel Nir Barkat signed the Vietnam - Israel Free Trade Agreement (VIFTA).
The VIFTA Agreement was initiated in the context of the increasingly positive development of bilateral relations between Vietnam and the EU, especially in the economic and trade fields. The signing of VIFTA marks the result of the tireless efforts of both countries after 7 years with 12 negotiation sessions and is even more meaningful in the context of the two countries carrying out many practical activities on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Israel is the first country in West Asia with which Vietnam signed an FTA and Vietnam is also the first country in Southeast Asia with which Israel signed an FTA.
Israel is currently one of Vietnam’s leading trade, investment and labor cooperation partners in West Asia. The economic structures of Vietnam and Israel are complementary, and the import and export goods of the two countries not only do not compete directly but also complement each other.
The signing and implementation of VIFTA will create favorable conditions for Vietnam to promote the export of its strengths to Israel, while also having the opportunity to access high-tech products from Israel, contributing to reducing production and business costs and enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods.
The Agreement consists of 15 Chapters and a number of appendices attached to the chapters with basic contents such as trade in goods, services - investment, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade (TBT), sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), customs, trade defense, government procurement, legal - institutional.
With the agreement reached in all chapters of the agreement, especially the strong commitment of both sides to increase the rate of trade liberalization with the overall liberalization rate by the end of the commitment roadmap of Israel being 92.7% of tariff lines while Vietnam is 85.8% of tariff lines, the two sides expect that two-way trade will have remarkable growth, soon reaching 3 billion USD and higher in the coming time.
Not only contributing to increasing the turnover of bilateral trade, VIFTA is expected to be a lever to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in investment, services, digital transformation, technology, etc.
The signing and implementation of VIFTA will create favorable conditions for Vietnam to promote the export of its key products not only to Israel but also to have the opportunity to access other markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe.
On the other hand, besides Vietnam's market of over 100 million people, Israeli goods and technology have the opportunity to access markets in ASEAN countries, Asia-Pacific and major economies in the 16 FTAs that Vietnam has participated in.
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