MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS DISPOSITIONS ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY (SPS) MEASURES IN THE NEW GENERATION OF FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS OF VIETNAM Specialization: International Trade Policy and Law FULL NAME: LE NGOC TRAM Hanoi – 2019 Luan van MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS DISPOSITIONS ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY (SPS) MEASURES IN THE NEW GENERATION OF FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS OF VIETNAM Major: International Economics Specialization: International Trade Policy and Law Code: 8310106 Full name: Le Ngoc Tram Supervisor: Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha Hanoi - 2019 Luan van STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that this master thesis is my own scientific research which is made under the guidance of my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha. The contents and results of this research are completely honest.
The information, data and documents which are collected from various sources for analysis and evaluation have been fully cited in the main content and in the references list of this master thesis as well. Student, Le Ngoc Tram Luan van CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.i LIST OF TABLES.ii LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS. Analysis of new generation free trade agreements and SPS measures within the framework of WTO. SPS measures in the context of free trade agreements and dispositions of SPS measures in the new generation free trade agreements of Vietnam.
Vietnam’s legislation in compliance with SPS commitments in NGFTAs. Scope of research. Structure of thesis.10 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF SPS PROVISIONS IN THE NEW GENERATION FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS. Overview of new generation free trade agreements.
Definition of new generation free trade agreements. Legal basis of new generation free trade agreements. Characteristics of new generation free trade agreements. Roles of new generation free trade agreements.
New generation free trade agreements of Vietnam. Legal basis of SPS provisions in the new generation free trade agreements. SPS Agreement in WTO. Legal basis of SPS measures in the new generation free trade agreements.
Criteria to assess Vietnam’s legislation on SPS measures.36 CHAPTER 2: DISPOSITIONS ON SPS MEASURES IN THE NEW GENERATION FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS OF VIETNAM. A confirmation of WTO’s SPS obligations. Definitions, rights and obligations. Special and differential treatment.
Dispute settlement in accordance with WTO’s provisions. Supplements beyond WTO’s SPS obligations. Transparency, competent authorities and contact points. Dispute settlement beyond WTO’s obligations.
Control, inspection and approval procedural specifics. Tobacco control measures and Halal requirements. General evaluations on SPS measures in the new generation free trade agreements. Having broader scope.
Being more specific and comprehensive. Containing more specific procedures. Enhancing the transparency.66 CHAPTER 3: VIETNAM’S SPS MEASURES LEGISLATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIETNAM IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SPS PROVISIONS IN ITS NEW GENERATION FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS. SPS measures legal framework of Vietnam.
Overview of Vietnam’s SPS measures legislation. Sources of SPS measures legislation in Vietnam. The compatibility of Vietnam’s legal framework with its new generation free trade agreements’ SPS commitments. New generation free trade agreements’ commitments that Vietnam’s legislation is compatible.
New generation free trade agreements’ commitments that Vietnam’s legislation has not been compatible with. Effects of SPS measures in the new generation free trade agreements’ on Vietnam’s legislation. Recommendations for Vietnam in the implementation of SPS dispositions in the new generation free trade agreements. Improving provisions in Vietnam’s legislation in accordance with regulations of new generation free trade agreements.
Raising awareness of SPS measures in the new generation free trade agreements. Taking advantage of cooperation and technical support in SPS measures .97 LIST OF REFERENCES.99 Luan van ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to complete this master thesis, I have been received enthusiastic guidance and support from my lectures, family and friends. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my thanks to them. Firstly, I would like to express the sincerest thanks to my supervisor, Dr.
Nguyen Ngoc Ha who has supported, guided and encouraged me during the completion of this master thesis from choosing the topic, outlining the main ideas, turning those ideas into this thesis to editing this paper. Without his enthusiastic and excellent guidance and support, I could not have completed this master thesis. Also, I would like to express my special thanks to all lectures of the Master of International Policy and Law program, Foreign Trade University as well as World Trade Institute who gave me the chance to broaden my humble horizon in the field of economics and laws. Last but not least, I would like to express my warm thanks to my family, my colleagues and my friends who never stop supporting, encouraging and giving me the favorable conditions to complete this master thesis.
Luan van LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: A confirmation of WTO's obligations.2: Supplements beyond WTO’s SPS obligations.1: Vietnamese legal documents regulating SPS measures.71 Luan van LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS Abbreviatio Full name n APEC Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations CODEX Codex Alimentarius Commission CPTPP Comprehensive and Progressive Trans – Pacific Partnership Agreement CSR Corporate social responsibility CTC Cooperative Technical Consultation DSU Dispute Settlement Understanding EAEUFTA Vietnam – the Eurasian Economic Union FTA EU European Union EVFTA EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FTA Free Trade Agreement GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade IICA Inter – American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture IPPC International Plant Protection Convention MFN Most Favored Nation NGFTA New generation Free Trade Agreement NT National Treatment OIE Organization for Animal health PTA Preferential Trade Agreement SPS Sanitary and Phytosanitary STDF Standards and Trade Development Facility TPP Trans – Pacific Partnership Agreement VKFTA Vietnam – Korea Free Trade Agreement WTO World Trade Organization Luan van ABSTRACT New generation FTA is an inevitable tendency for members to deeply cooperate in a variety of areas, including SPS measures. Joining NGFTAs, Vietnam is not out of that tendency, therefore, Vietnam has to fully comply with commitments regulated in NGFTAs. With topic “Dispositions on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in the new generation of Free Trade Agreements of Vietnam”, the thesis focuses on similarities and differences on regulations between SPS Agreement (WTO) and NGFTAs of Vietnam in order to point out the dispositions on SPS measures. Not limited to this, the thesis analyzes Vietnam’s legal documents on SPS measures compared to regulations stated in NGFTAs.
Following that, the thesis mainly focuses on several issues and gains some achievements as below. Firstly, the thesis comprehensively analyzes regulations on SPS measures in SPS Agreement (WTO) and NGFTAs of Vietnam. As a result, the similarities and differences between them are stated. Based on that, the thesis reveals that NGFTAs of Vietnam not only reconfirm regulations on SPS measures of SPS Agreement, but also have supplementary regulations.
Secondly, the thesis details Vietnam’s legal documents on SPS measures in order to state the compatibility and not compatibility of legal documents on SPS measures compared to NGFTAs of Vietnam. Each provision on SPS measures is analyzed so as to point out for which provisions Vietnam’s legislation fully complies and for which provisions Vietnam’s legislation party and not complies. Thirdly, based on analysis above, recommendations for Vietnam to fully comply with regulations on SPS measures when joining NGFTAs are revealed. Besides complying with regulations stated in NGFTAs, recommendations for Vietnam to take advantage of NGFTAs are also pointed out.
Luan van INTRODUCTION 1. Research rationale In the context of globalization, countries have a tendency to extensively and comprehensively cooperate in a variety of areas, therefore, the number new generation free trade agreements (NGFTAs) has increased significantly and gradually replaced traditional free trade agreements (FTAs). NGFTAs focus on new issues such as labor, sustainable development and the environment which are not mentioned in traditional FTAs. Vietnam has joined sixteen FTAs1, including several typical NGFTAs, for example, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans – Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP), Vietnam – EU FTA (EVFTA), Vietnam – Korea FTA (VKFTA) and Vietnam – the Eurasian Economic Union FTA (EAEUFTA)2.
Being different from traditional FTAs, NGFTAs have broad scope of commitments and strict requirements3 on areas such as environment, sustainable development and human, animal or plant life or health besides economic growth. As for area related to human, animal or plant life or health, compared to SPS Agreement (WTO), NGFTAs contain strict requirements and requirements which are beyond regulations of SPS Agreement, for example, import requirements and procedures, verifications, audits and inspections, procedure for listing of establishments, certification and documents confirming safety, and regulations on tobacco control measures and halal products. Besides, Vietnam has potential on production and exportation of agricultural and aquatic products which are significantly affected by regulations on SPS measures when Vietnam ratified NGFTAs. In order to increase exportation of agricultural and aquatic products to its 1 WTO Center, Tổng hợp các FTA của Việt Nam tính đến tháng 11/2018 (Summary of FTAs of Vietnam until November, 2018), 2018b, at <http://www.vn/chuyen-de/12065-tong-hop-cac-fta-cua-viet-nam- tinh-den-thang-112018>, accessed on 29th Oct 2018.
2 Le Thi Thuy, “Hiệp định thương mại tự do thế hệ mới: Cơ hội và thách thức đối với Việt Nam” (New generation FTAs: opportunities and challenges for Vietnam), Journal on science and society of Vietnam, Vol.19 – 20 Luan van partners’ market in NGFTAs, and take advantages of NGFTAs, Vietnam has to comply with strict regulations on SPS measures in NGFTAs. The number of NGFTAs which Vietnam has joined and ratified has increased since the year 20154, but most legal documents related to SPS measures were issued before that point of time. As a result, there is a gap between regulations on SPS measures in NGFTAs of Vietnam and Vietnam’s legislation of that area. In order to effectively take advantage of opportunities brought by NGFTAs and comply with commitments on SPS measures regulated in NGFTAs that Vietnam officially signed and has implemented, Vietnam’s legal framework on SPS measures should be amended and improved.
For the reasons mentioned above, the topic “Dispositions on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in the new generation of Free Trade Agreements of Vietnam” is chosen to reveal the disposition of SPS measures in NGFTAs of Vietnam compared to those of WTO. Also, the gap of regulations on SPS measures between NGFTAs of Vietnam and Vietnam’s legislation is pointed out. Based on that analysis, the paper will give some recommendations on Vietnam’s legislation to fully implement regulations on SPS measures of NGFTAs. Literature review While there is a huge number of researches being conducted on NGFTAs and SPS measures in the framework of WTO, not many researches have carried out SPS measures in NGFTAs, especially, in NGFTAs of Vietnam.
This part of the thesis will analyze several typical researches on NGFTAs and SPS measures in WTO. Analysis of new generation free trade agreements and SPS measures within the framework of WTO Firstly, concerning NGFTAs, paper “What scope for an EU – ASEAN Free Trade Agreement”5 is a paper revealing potentials of EU – ASEAN FTA which is considered a NGFTA through analysis of general characteristics, trade and 4 WTO Center (2018b), op. 5 O’Callaghan and Nicolas, “What scope for an EU – ASEAN Free Trade Agreement”, Journal of World Trade, Vol. Luan van investment policies, trade restrictiveness and the correlative relation between two partners (EU and ASEAN).
Based on that, major features of potential EU – ASEAN FTA which is a NGFTA are stated, for example, behind border measures and requirements accommodating different capacity level. To conclude, this paper emphasizes characteristics of NGFTAs such as addressing behind the border issues, broad scope of commitments and different timelines for different members. Paper “New generation FTAs: opportunities and challenges for Vietnam” 6 reveals several typical NGFTAs of Vietnam, for instance, EVFTA, CPTPP, VKFTA and EAEUFTA. Also, characteristics of NGFTAs are analyzed such as broad scope of commitments, high level of liberalization, institutional commitments and most participants being developed parties.
Then opportunities and challenges to Vietnam when joining NGFTAs are revealed in this paper. Paper “Overview of new generation Free Trade Agreement” 7 points out definition and characteristics of NGFTAs.