With the country's opening policy since 1986, Vietnam has made great efforts in promoting foreign trade as a key contributor to GDP growth. Over the last three decades, Vietnam has participated in various Free Trade Agreements, both bilateral and multilateral, with its trade partners around the world. Below is the list of FTAs that Vietnam has concluded by now.

 

Viet Nam – Israel Free Trade Agreement (VIFTA)

The Free Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and Israel ended negotiations after 12 negotiating sessions and was officially signed on 25^th July 2023. The Agreement will come into force in early 2024.

The Agreement consists of fifteen chapters including Chapter 4 on Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation in customs matters.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here

 

Vietnam - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement

The Agreement between Vietnam and Japan for an Economic Partnership (VJEPA) was signed on December 25th, 2008 and came into force on October 1st, 2009. This is the very first bilateral FTA of Vietnam, in which both Vietnam and Japan give the other more preferences than that agreed under the Agreement for Comprehensive Economic Partnership ASEAN – Japan (AJCEP). However, VJEPA does not replace AJCEP. These two FTAs coexist and enterprises can choose to use the more favorable one.

For the full text of the Agreement, please click here.

Vietnam - Chile Free Trade Agreement

The Free Trade Agreement between the Government of Republic of Chile and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was signed on November 11th, 2011 and came into effect on January 1st, 2014. This FTA contains only commitments on goods and goods-related matters, there are no commitments on services and investment. Such FTA is the very first FTA between Vietnam and a South American country.

For the full text of the Agreement, please click here.

Vietnam - Korea Free Trade Agreement

The Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and Korea (VKFTA) was signed on May 5th, 2015 and officially came into effect on December 20th, 2015. Compared to FTA ASEAN – Korea (AKFTA), VKFTA contains more preferences that the Parties give to each other in the field of goods, services and investment. However, VKFTA does not replace AKFTA. These two FTAs coexists and enterprises can choose to use the more favorable one.

For the full text of the Agreement, please click here.

Vietnam - Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement

The Vietnam - Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement was signed among Vietnam and other member states of the Eurasian Economic Union including Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in Kazakhstan on May 29, 2015 and official took effect from October 5, 2016.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here. 

 

ASEAN Agreements

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established in 1967 with the aim of enhancing the multilateral cooperation in the field of economics, politics and socio-culture among its member countries. Vietnam officially participated in ASEAN in 1995. Currently, ASEAN has 10 members, including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
ASEAN Community is comprised of three primary pillars, namely the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is set up on December 31st, 2015.
One of the main purposes of AEC is to create a single market and production base in the region. Such purpose has been progressively fulfilled through the Agreement on Free Trade in Goods, Services, Investment in ASEAN and many other Programs, Initiatives, etc.

For the content of ASEAN Agreements, please click here.

ASEAN - India FTA

ASEAN and the Republic of India went into the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation on October 8th, 2003. The Parties, on the basis of the Framework Agreement, signed an Agreement on Free Trade in Goods (effective on January 1st, 2010), an Agreement on Free Trade in Services (effective on July 1st, 2015) and an Agreement on Investment (effective on July 1st, 2015) with the aim of establishing an ASEAN – India Free Trade Area.

For the content of those Agreements, please click here. 

ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand FTA

ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand signed the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN –Australia – New Zealand Free Trade Area on February 2nd, 2009, which came into effect from January 1st, 2010. Such agreement is quite comprehensive, containing detailed commitments on goods, services (also including financial and telecommunications services), investment, electronic commerce, movement of natural persons, intellectual property, competition policy and economic co-operation.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here. 

ASEAN - Korea FTA

In 2005, ASEAN and Korea entered into the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation. The Parties, on the ground of the Framework Agreement, signed 04 other Agreement, namely Agreement on Trade in Goods (effective from June, 2007), Agreement on Trade in Services (effective from May, 2009), and Agreement on Investment (effective from June, 2009) with the aim of establishing an ASEAN – Korea Free Trade Area.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here. 

ASEAN - Japan FTA

ASEAN and Japan signed the Framework Agreement for Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) in April 2008. This Framework Agreement took effect on December 1st, 2008. AJCEP includes commitments on trade in goods, services, investment and economic co-operations.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here. 

ASEAN - China FTA

ASEAN and China singed the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Co-operation in November, 2002. The Parties, on the basis of this Framework Agreement, signed the Agreement on Trade in Goods (effective from July, 2005), Agreement on Trade in Services (effective from July, 2005), and Agreement on Investment (effective from February, 2010) with the aim of establishing an ASEAN – China Free Trade Area.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here.

 

ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA)

The ATIGA Agreement was signed in February 2009 and came into effect on 17 May 2010, formerly the Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT / AFTA) signed in 1992.
ATIGA is the first comprehensive agreement of ASEAN to regulate all intra-ASEAN trade in goods and is built on the basis of the consolidation of agreed tariff reduction / elimination commitments in CEPT / AFTA with related agreements and protocols.
Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995 and started its implementation of the CEPT / AFTA in 1996 and later continued its implementation of ATIGA.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here.

 

ASEAN - Hong Kong, China Free Trade Agreement - AHKFTA

ASEAN and Hong Kong, China officially signed the Free Trade Agreement (AHKFTA) on 12 November 2017 after ten rounds of negotiations. AHKFTA came into force from 11 June 2019 in Hong Kong and five ASEAN member countries including Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. The FTA consist of fourteen Chapters, including Chapter 4 on Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here.

 

CPTPP

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) among twelve country members, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Prru, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Viet Nam. On 4 February 2016, TPP was officially signed and was expected to come into force in 2018. After the US’s withdrawal in January 2017, TPP can not meet enough requirements for enforcement as expected.

In November 2017,TPP was renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). In March 2018, CPTPP was officially signed by 11 country members (excluding the US). This Agreement was approved by 7 country members including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Viet Nam and officially came into force on 30 December 2018. CPTPP came into force in Viet Nam since 14 January 2019.

CPTPP maintain almost TPP commitments excluding: (i) the US-related commitments; (ii) 22 freeze clauses; and (iii) some modifications in Side Letters among CPTPP members.

CPTPP consist of thirty Chapters including Chapter 5 on Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation (Article 5.7-f which is freeze under CPTPP).

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here.

 

EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)

EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is a new generation FTA between Viet Nam and European Union member states. Negotiations for an EU-Vietnam FTA were launched in June 2012. On 1 December 2015, the negotiation rounds of EVFTA was officially announced to be concluded, and its official full text was  published on 1 February 2016.

The EVFTA was signed on 30 June 2019. EVFTA was ratified by the European Parliament on 12 February 2020, and approved by the Vietnamese National Assembly on 8 June 2020. The European Council approved the EVFTA on 30 March 2020. This Agreement will enter into force on 1 August 2020.

The Agreement consists of seventeen Chapters including Chapter 4 on Customs and Trade Facilitation and the Protocol 2 on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here.

RCEP (ASEAN+5)

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between 10 ASEAN member countries and 6 partners that already have an FTA with ASEAN, including China, Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand, was launched from 2013. In November, 2019, the member countries basically completed the negotiation on the RCEP document (except India - announced to withdraw from this Agreement). On November 15, 2020, 15 RCEP member countries (excluding India) signed the RCEP.

According to the RCEP regulation, this Agreement will officially enter into force within 60 days after that at least 6 ASEAN member countries and 3 non-ASEAN member countries complete the ratification/approval of the Agreement and deposit it with the ASEAN General Secretary.

As of November 15, 2021, 06 ASEAN countries including  Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam and 04 partner countries: China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, have deposited their instruments of approval/ratification of the RCEP Agreement with the ASEAN General Secretary. Thus, the RCEP Agreement will officially take effect on January 1, 2022.

This Agreement consists of 20 Chapters including  Chapter 4 on Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here

 

The Viet Nam – Cuba Trade Agreement

The Viet Nam - Cuba Trade Agreement, signed in Hanoi on November 09, 2018, replaces the Agreement between the two Governments on trade exchange and other forms of economic cooperation signed in 1996. This Agreement entered into force on 1 April 2020.

Tthe Viet Nam - Cuba Trade Agreement includes 14 chapters with regulations on trade in goods; rules of origin; customs administration and trade facilitation; trade remedies; standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; economic and trade cooperation ... Accordingly, the two sides commit to eliminate or reduce taxes on nearly 100% of products which are imported from each other's market within 5 years.

In which chapter 4 regulates Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation.

For the full content of the Agreement, please click here.

 

UK-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA)

UK-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) was officially completed on December 11, 2020 and signed on December 29, 2020. The Agreement is negotiated on the basis of the principle of inheriting the commitments in the Free Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and the European Union (EVFTA) with necessary adjustments to ensure the compliance with the bilateral trade framework between Viet Nam and the UK.

The Agreement consists of 9 Articles including 01 Annex modifying some Articles of the EVFTA; 01 Bilateral Letter exchanged between Viet Nam and the UK; 01 Protocol concerning the definition of the concept of “Originating products” and methods of administrative cooperation; Explanatory note on how the United Kingdom interprets references in incorporated trade agreements to European Union Law; and Explanatory note on Mutatis Mutandis.

Chapter 4 of the EVFTA is on Customs and Trade Facilitation.

The Agreement officially came into force from May 1, 2021.

For the full text of the Agreement, please click here.