Vizjak and Vietnamese Trade Minister Discuss GSP
Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak met on Monday Vietnamese Industry and Trade Minister Vu Huy Hoang to discuss the proposal of a new EU regulation on the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for the 2009-2011 period, which envisages the exclusion of footwear of Vietnamese origin from the GSP framework.
According to the Economy Ministry, the imports of Vietnamese footwear to the EU will enjoy by the end of 2008 preferential treatment (tax rates reduced by 3.5 percentage points) within the GSP.
The EU provides this one-way support to developing countries for goods the share of which in the EU imports does not represent more than 15% of the exports of the respective goods.
The statistics for the last three years show that the share of imports of Vietnamese footwear in the EU stands about 20% of the total footwear imports.
The GSP working group is now examining the statistical data to decide if Vietnamese footwear should be excluded from the GSP coverage in the next three-year period.
According to the ministry, economic cooperation between Slovenia and Vietnam is relatively poor, with trade between the countries last year amounting to 0.02% of Slovenia's foreign trade.
Vizjak and Vu Huy Hoang agreed that a common way for boosting economic cooperation between the countries should be found, primarily through possible agreements in the field of investment.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|