London(VNA) – The UK always considers Vietnam as its important and potential tradepartner and wants to expand multifaceted cooperation with the Southeast Asiannation, said British Secretary ofState for InternationalTrade Liam Fox.
At a meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, whopaid a working visit to the UK from December 4-5, Fox reasserted the British Government’scommitment to further boosting trade ties with Vietnam.
The two countries shouldtake new measures and initiatives to foster bilateral trade cooperation, he said.
Forhis part, Anh affirmed that Vietnam has attached great importance to themultifaceted strategic partnership with the UK, and has been making every effortto promote bilateral cooperation.
Solutionsand initiatives should focus on sharing information about importpolicies, trade barriers and management of fake goods management as well asincreasing trade promotion and market studying activities, thus facilitating two-waytrade, he stressed.
The minister proposed the UK create favourable conditions for prestigious Vietnameseexporters to join distribution networks in the UK, especially for ago-aquatic products,textiles-garments and footwear.
Vietnamhighly evaluates the dialogue mechanism of the Vietnam-UKJoint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO), considering this as a usefulchannel to regularly exchange measures and solutions to remove difficultiesfacing enterprises.
The upcoming10th session of JETCO is scheduled to take place in the UK in thefirst quarter of 2018, focusing on ways to encourage the participation ofbusinesses in JETCO and to enhance cooperation among localities of the twocountries.
Economicand trade relations between Vietnam and the UK have been developing fruitfully inrecent years, with two-way trade hitting 5.62 billion USD in 2016, up 4.3 percentyear-on-year. The UK is now the third largest trade partner of Vietnam in Europeafter Germany and the Netherlands.-VNA