Implementation of SPS/TBT Agreements - Experiences from Other Countries and Lessons for Vietnam

Abstract

Although Vietnam has been an official member of WTO since 2007, non-tariff measures such as Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in WTO agreements are not familiar to many corporate or governmental entities. Therefore, TBT and SPS measures are not consistently implemented and the advantages of such agreements are not realized. It was determined that international policy learning, searching international experience for transferable ‘best practice’ and identifying common trends and pressures that affect other systems, would be an avenue toward amending domestic policy to facilitate compliance with TBT and SPS agreements.Given that the plastics and agricultural industries are fast emerging markets of particular importance to Vietnam’s economy, they were chosen as the focus of our study. Two other Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia and Thailand were selected for our policy learning study. Historical to date trade data with country specific policy development trends and strategies were collected and processed. Local experts in Malaysia, Thailand and WTO were consulted. It was discovered that the plastics industry is not an industry with a long history of development in Malaysia but which is one of the most important export products of Malaysia. Thailand is a leading agricultural products exporter even to markets which set up strict TBT and/or SPS measures. Export value, product structure and export market structure were all analyzed. Results suggest that the achievements of Malaysia and Thailand area attributable to well-engineered Government policy, as well as corporate compliance with TBT and SPS measures in both countries. In order to determine how the products of this study might reasonably inform domestic policy and industry practice a better knowledge of the current state of the industries with regard to implementation of TBT and SPS measures was required. Questionnaires were submitted to traders, producers and industry associations in Vietnam to document SPS and TBT agreements compliance practices. Results of the questionnaire illustrate how and to what extent lessons garnered from the policy learning study can be successfully employed in Vietnam.