Prague (VNA) – The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will create ample opportuniti♑es for overseas Vietnamese enterprises in the Czech Republic as well as companies that import Vietnamese goods to the EU.

Under the trade deal, many imported Vietnamese goods will enjoy a tax exemption, including rice, seafood, garment and textiles, footwear, fruit and vegetables. Chairman of the Vietnamese Association in the Czech Republic Hoang Dinh Thang said the recently signed agreement will bring great benefits to Vietnamese enterprises when they export goods to the Czech Republic and the EU, as well as those trading Vietnamese goods in the Czech Republic and the EU at large. Thang, who is also General Director of the Sapa Trade Centre – the biggest wholesale market of the Vietnamese community in the EU – added that the deal is considered an opportunity for more Vietnamese goods to enter the EU. He said he hopes that when the EVFTA comes into effect Vietnamese goods will be competitive with other imported goods. After nearly three years with 14 official rounds of talks and multiple mid-term negotiations, Vietnam and the EU completed negotiations on the trade pact. The EVFTA is an inclusive agreement that ensures the balance of interests for both Vietnam and the EU, with due consideration for the development gap between the two sides. The pact covers trade in goods, rules of origin, customs and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers in trade, trade in services, investment, trade remedies, competition, State-owned enterprises, Government procurement, intellectual property, sustainable development, cooperation and capacity building, legal and institutional issues, and new approaches to investment protection and settlement of investment disputes. Vietnam and the EU will eliminate tariffs on over 99 percent of tariff lines. For the few remaining lines, the two sides will give each other a certain customs quota or partial reduction of customs tariffs.-VNA