Nghe An textile and garment enterprises seek solutions to take advantage of the Free Trade Agreement FTA

Mr. Ngo Chung Khanh - Deputy Director of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) chaired the conference. Also attending were representatives of relevant departments and agencies, the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) - Nghe An Branch and nearly 50 textile and garment enterprises in Nghe An.

Opening speech of the workshop, representative of the leadershipNghe An Department of Industry and TradeWelcome and appreciate the significance of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade in coordinating with the province to organize a workshop to directly discuss with Nghe An textile and garment enterprises to propose solutions to take advantage of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).

Next, in the discussion at the workshop, the representative of the Import-Export Department, Nghe An Department of Industry and Trade gave an overview of Nghe An textile and garment. Every year, textile and garment contributes about 20% of the province's export turnover with over 40 textile and garment enterprises, creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of rural workers.

In addition, based on pointing out some limitations and shortcomings, Nghe An also proposed some solutions for textile and garment enterprises in the area to exploit and make effective use of FTAs...

At the workshop, based on an overview of the textile and garment industry's activities in the first months of 2023; orientations for the textile and garment industry in the coming time and the trend of policy adjustments in some major markets and partners, representatives of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) and experts from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said that signing FTAs ​​requires a lot of negotiation effort. Therefore, localities and textile and garment enterprises need to make efforts and make the most of opportunities from FTAs.Free Trade Agreement FTA.

In addition, based on the analysis of relationships, comparative advantages between markets in FTAs ​​in recent times and development trends, standardsgreen growthIn some major markets in the region, experts and managers also recommend that businesses in the use of labor and input materials need to meet sustainable development when exporting to FTA markets...

Currently, Vietnam has participated in 19 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and 1 partner, of which 15 have been signed and come into effect, 2 have been signed but not yet come into effect and are negotiating 3. Thanks to the FTA mechanism, trade relations between Vietnam and countries and regions have improved significantly, of which the largest are trade relations with the United States, Europe and South American countries in 2022 with a value of 140.8 billion USD; the East Asia region is about 128.32 billion USD.

According to signed FTAs ​​and especially new generation FTAs ​​with many incentives, it is agreed that 42.5% of tax lines will be reduced to 0% as soon as the Agreement comes into effect, the rest will be eliminated within 7 years.

However, because most textile and garment enterprises in the area still operate in the form of processing, have no brand and the added value is limited, they have not taken advantage of the opportunities and space brought by FTAs. Therefore, this workshop is an opportunity for Nghe An textile and garment enterprises and managers to make a general assessment of the textile and garment industry in the province; at the same time, support enterprises to improve their competitiveness, build their own brands, and meet the standards of sustainable development.

Based on the comments and recommendations of representatives of agencies and enterprises, representatives of the Multilateral Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) exchanged responses and agreed to develop a Plan to operate the province's textile and garment export ecosystem for implementation after the Workshop./.