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Free trade with US sought at meeting
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has called on the US Government to enter into a free trade agreement with Viet Nam and lift trade barriers on Vietnamese products.
At a reception for Chicago Council on Global Affairs chairman Lester Crown in Ha Noi yesterday, he also urged the US to help the nation cope with climate change and raising sea levels.
Dung said Viet Nam wanted the US to join hands to speed up bilateral co-operative and friendly relations in various aspects.
He said the American war had killed about 2 million Vietnamese people and left hundreds of thousands missing, plus another 2 million people suffering from Agent Orange which the US sprayed on Viet Nam during the war, not to mention the thousands who had lost their life or been injured by bombs and mines left over from the war.
The Prime Minister asked the US Government to co-operate in search and rescue activities, clearing unexploded ordnances, easing the aftermaths of Agent Orange and training human resources.
Viet Nam, meanwhile, had been actively and effectively co-operating with the US in the search for the remains of US soldiers, he stressed.
On the Viet Nam-US relations, Dung said the US was a major trading partner of Viet Nam, with bilateral trade turnover amounting to about US$15 billion, 10 times more than it was in 2001. Progress had been made in the areas of education and training, security, external affairs and coping with climate changes and it was hoped that would continue, Dung said.
Viet Nam had responded by welcoming long-term and stable investment from US businessmen.
In reply, Crown said US businesses and individuals wanted Viet Nam to continue creating favourable conditions for US investors, including those from Chicago.
Crown said he would work with the Chicago Council to speed up Viet Nam-US friendship co-operation and relations.
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