FTA labour issues discussed

A seminar entitled, “The labour issue in free trade agreements (FTAs) – international experience – opportunities and challenges for Vietnam” was held in Hanoi on April 29.

Co-organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Office in Vietnam, this first-ever event of its kind took place as the Vietnamese government is negotiating a number of bilateral and multilateral FTAs, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, and preparing for negotiations on the EU-Vietnam FTA.

According to Nguyen Kim Phuong, Deputy Director of MoLISA’s Department for International Cooperation, Vietnam has not yet signed any bilateral or multilateral agreements with articles on labour standards, which are considered a new issue for Vietnam in its TPP negotiations.

The participants at the seminar emphasised the need to raise awareness and consensus of labour and trade unions when negotiating in FTAs.

In addition, plans to complete national law must be finalised and implemented as soon as possible alongside strengthening the capacity of the labour inspection and information-statistical systems, they added. – VOV

Tags: ASEAN Free Trade Agreement

Posted by VBN on Apr 30 2011. Filed under Import-Export. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry