National Assembly delegates from Nghe An province propose to 'reinforce' the implementation of international treaties

Regarding the Draft Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on International Treaties, Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice, Delegate of Nghe An Delegation said that although the draft Law has not mentioned it, it is necessary to study and supplement additional provisions to enhance the effectiveness of implementing and enforcing international treaties after signing.

According to him, Vietnam is one of the open economies with a large number of international treaties and agreements that have been signed and implemented in recent times. However, in practice, the effectiveness of implementing international commitments still has limitations, especially in new generation trade agreements. "We implement them but the number of businesses that take advantage of the advantages of these treaties is still very limited," he cited.

From this reality, the delegate of Nghe An delegation proposed to add more specific regulations on the mechanism of monitoring and organizing the implementation of international treaties. Currently, the Law has a provision assigning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be responsible for reporting to the Government annually on the implementation of international treaties, after which the Government submits it to the National Assembly.

However, according to Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu, the National Assembly agencies also need to have a program to monitor the implementation of international treaties, similar to the way it did during the period when Vietnam signed and implemented the Vietnam - US Trade Agreement (BTA).

He reiterated: During that period, the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee annually organized supervision and requested relevant ministries and branches to report on the results of BTA implementation. This approach created a very positive momentum, helping Vietnam effectively implement the agreement and take advantage of many opportunities from trade relations with the United States.

From that experience, Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu proposed that the drafting agency should study and add new regulations to "strengthen" the implementation stage, ensuring that international treaties are implemented more effectively after signing, especially in the context of Vietnam's increasingly open economy.

Article 72a of the draft Law stipulates authorization in special cases, stating: “In case it is necessary to handle practical requests or urgent foreign affairs requests, after consulting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and relevant organizations, the proposing agency shall recommend the Prime Minister to report to the President to authorize the Prime Minister to decide on the negotiation, signing, amendment and supplementation of a number of international treaties on behalf of the State under the authority of the President within a specified period of time. This provision does not apply to treaties specified in points a to d, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Law”.

Commenting on this content, Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu generally agreed with the plan stated in the review report of the Committee on National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs. However, in terms of legislative techniques, according to him, the content of Article 72a should be expressed more clearly to facilitate its application in practice.

The delegate from Nghe An analyzed: The title of the law is "authorization in special cases", in which "special cases" are divided into 2 groups: "Cases necessary to handle practical requests" and "cases with urgent foreign affairs requests".

According to him, the second group, “urgent foreign affairs requirements”, is relatively clear, understandable and implementable. However, the phrase “handling practical requirements” is general and unclear. Therefore, the drafting agency needs to clarify what these “practical requirements” are to facilitate implementation.

From that perspective, Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu proposed two ways to handle it. If this is determined to be the personal authority of the President, it is only necessary to stipulate the principle: When the President deems it necessary, he can authorize, without having to list specific cases.

On the contrary, if we want to retain the scope of "special cases", we must clearly specify the criteria and specific circumstances that are considered special for "cases necessary to handle practical requests", to facilitate the implementation process.

In addition, the delegate from Nghe An also raised some opinions on legislative techniques and transitional provisions of the draft Law.