KOTRA opens support centre to help companies take advantage of VKFTA

February 22, 2016 | 14:25

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The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in Hanoi (KOTRA Hanoi) is opening the Centre to Apply the VKFTA and on March 2, with the aim to help companies from South Korea and Vietnam take advantage of the Korea-Vietnam free trade agreement (VKFTA).

The centre is going to provide help to companies from the two countries which operate in fields that are beneficiaries of preferential trade policies as stipulated in the VKFTA, in order to facilitate trade between them.

On the same day, KOTRA, in cooperation with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other agencies in Vietnam, is holding the conference on taking advantage of the VKFTA and the TPP at Lotte Hanoi.

Also at the event, KOTRA and the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality under the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology are going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of standards and evaluation in order to simplify related administrative procedures that South Korean companies have to carry out when exporting to Vietnam.

KOTRA promotes export of South Korean goods and investment of South Korean enterprises in Vietnam. South Korea is currently the fifth largest exporter to Vietnam, and the second largest importer of Vietnamese goods. The two countries’ bilateral trade grew at an average annual rate of 20 per cent in the last few years.

The VKFTA came into effect on December 20 last year. According to the agreement, Vietnam will eliminate tariffs on 89.9 per cent of goods – including plastic materials, apparel, footwear, leather, automobile components, engines and machinery – imported from South Korea within 15 years; while South Korea will remove tariffs on 95.4 per cent of commodities imported from Vietnam during the same period, such as shrimp, fish, fruits, garment and textiles, timber and mechanical products.

By By Hong Anh

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