Import-Export Situation Between Vietnam and EU in Recent Times

necessary. The removal of technical barriers, ensuring the circulation of goods and services in the EU's single market is a long and complicated process, and until now has not been completed. Thus, the integration of the markets of Central and Eastern European countries, with low levels of development, lacking many standards on technology, labor safety, health, environment, etc. into the Single Market will be a process that requires great efforts from new members. Up to now, in sensitive areas such as agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, and garments, the EU still uses non-tariff barriers, even anti-dumping measures against Eastern European goods. After joining, the new Eastern European members still have to make great efforts in applying acquis to truly integrate into the Single Market, ensuring the free circulation of goods, services, capital and labor.

Removing barriers in the Single Market for new businesses is a challenge in the pre-integration and post-integration stages. However, the competitive pressure in the new Single Market is actually a bigger, longer-term challenge and will be more drastic when removing trade barriers. As we know, competition policy is the core content of the single market, aiming to ensure free and equal competition in the trade and circulation of goods, services, labor and capital, and to protect the rights of consumers. Its basic contents are anti-monopoly, abuse of monopoly position, control of State support, control of business activities of State monopolies, promotion of business freedom through removing institutional barriers, and liberalization of State monopolies. The EU's competition policy aims to ensure a fair competitive environment in the Single Market of highly developed and quite similar market economies, not to enhance the economic efficiency of each member country. As Mario Monty recently commented

(European Commission Commissioner, responsible for competition), the two fundamental challenges of EU competition policy after enlargement are:

- Despite differences in the level of economic development and competitive foundations between countries, it is still necessary to ensure that businesses and agencies operate according to the same competition policy that applies to the entire Community.

- The structural problems that limit competitiveness and hinder economic growth in the EU need to be addressed. Economic reform and the opening and competition of the EU market are needed to ensure sustainable growth. A more effective competition policy is a fundamental element of this process.

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With a series of differences in development levels and economic structures, the imposition of this policy will cause great difficulties for the transitional economies of Eastern Europe. The transition process from a centrally planned economy to a market economy with the basic contents of stabilizing the macro economy, liberalizing the economy, privatizing, and building market economic institutions is also

aimed at better resource allocation, enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises, creating rapid economic growth, improving people's lives. However, in the past, in the planned economy, enterprises were all state-owned, all economic activities were carried out according to planning, there was no concept of competition in the economy. In the process of reforming the market economy, with a large proportion of inefficient state-owned enterprises, ownership conversion requires large resources from the State to reform these enterprises. If applying regulatory policies, liberalizing natural monopolies will lead to the collapse of many giant enterprises that have existed since the subsidy period, leading to mass unemployment, possibly causing political instability. Moreover, economic restructuring also requires

Eastern European countries must provide stronger support for the very inefficient research and development sector, as well as for young and medium-sized enterprises that have just transformed or been established. To attract foreign investment, an important resource for development, investment in infrastructure and environmental protection is also a paradox, poorer Eastern European countries must spend more on these areas. On the other hand, in the process of transformation, a series of public services such as health care and education are seriously degraded and require more support.

From the beginning of the transition period, countries considered competition as a vital factor of the economy and made great efforts to build competition laws. Hungary ratified the competition law in 1990, in the Czech Republic the law on economic competition protection came into effect on March 1, 1991. During the accession negotiations, with the support of the EU in the PHARE program, countries adopted acquis, gradually adjusting their laws to converge with Community law, including competition law.

According to the 2002 European Commission's assessment of the accession process in the field of competition, anti-monopoly laws have been applied in many countries, but the effectiveness and efficiency of the application of these laws need to be strengthened. Regarding state support, there are still unreasonable schemes in some countries, often in the form of financial incentives. Some countries also need to control state support in sensitive areas such as shipbuilding and steel, which are areas where restructuring of production is necessary. The opening and liberalization of markets under traditional state monopoly, such as transportation, energy, post and telecommunications, etc., especially in the context of transitional economies, will of course be much more difficult than the developed market economies in the current EU-15. The transformation of backward, competitive, small-scale, environmentally destructive agriculture with a large labor force into a highly specialized, high-productivity, low-labor agriculture requires

investment, in the trend of agricultural spending, agricultural spending under the Common Agricultural Policy will have to be cut in the future, moreover, new members who do not immediately enjoy the support of the CAP will be a challenge for new members.

In short , although there are many advantages, mainly clear goals for reform, support from the EU for building a modern market economy, ensuring the world's largest unified market, FDI investment from multinational companies in the Union is both large in quantity and has high scientific, technological and management levels, the challenges for the transition and integration process of Eastern European countries are also enormous. In the transitional conditions, when the market economy is still taking shape, still messy, in some places the old mechanism has not been completely eliminated, in some places the new mechanism has been established but is not operating effectively, old psychological habits and stagnation still exist, the operating institutions are not synchronized, ineffective, the infrastructure is still backward, the competitiveness of the economy is poor. Eastern European countries must meet the pressure of competition with developed economies in an environment that both eliminates all barriers and completely frees the movement of goods, services, capital and labor, while at the same time strictly restricting standards, laws and economic regulatory tools such as monetary policy, budget and interest rates of the EMU. The challenge becomes even more severe.

Becoming an official member of the EU on May 1, 2004, proves that the process of reforming the market economy and building a democracy that is both transformed and integrated in Eastern European countries has achieved great results. In the coming time, linking with the EU will create many conditions for Eastern European countries to grow their economies, perfect their market economies, improve democracy, raise the living standards of their people, and catch up with developed countries in the Union.

Through studying the integration transition process into the European Union of Eastern European countries, we draw some observations and lessons.

experience. For transitional economies, building an economy that operates according to market mechanisms, withstands the pressure of competition in the region and the world, and accepts common rules of the game is a prerequisite for successful economic integration. Reforming the market economy is a difficult task, requiring many efforts in all political, economic, and social aspects, with comprehensive programs and synchronous solutions in all fields, depending on the conditions and circumstances of each country. In terms of economy, the main contents of reform include establishing economic activities, privatization, building modern market economic infrastructures such as banking, financial and monetary systems, eliminating state subsidies, maintaining state regulation to ensure macroeconomic stability with a reasonable budget policy, modern system, flexible exchange rate and interest rate policies, etc. It can be said that these are dynamic variables in the transformation problem, the important thing is not to list the contents but to solve them for a comprehensive relationship with each other at appropriate times and speeds. And of course, for different countries, in different contexts, the solution to this problem is not the same.

CHAPTER 2: THE IMPACT OF EU ENLARGEMENT ON

IMPORT AND EXPORT ACTIVITIES BETWEEN VIETNAM AND EU

I. IMPORT AND EXPORT SITUATION BETWEEN VIETNAM AND EU IN RECENT TIMES

Vietnam has had relations with EU members quite early, but with the European Economic Community it was not until 1990 that it established official diplomatic relations. Before 1990, during the Cold War, there was an arms race between the two systems and two opposing factions. As a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CECO), Vietnam mainly cooperated within the bloc, while cooperation with the outside was only to meet the needs that internal cooperation could not meet. Therefore, cooperation with the EU in particular and with other countries outside the CECO in general was almost insignificant. After the political upheavals in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 80s and early 90s, especially after the SEV bloc dissolved at the end of 1991, it had a strong impact on Vietnam's foreign relations in general and the European Union in particular. Implementing the economic renovation path established since the 6th National Party Congress in 1986, Vietnam's foreign economic relations have changed a lot and Vietnam has achieved many great achievements in all aspects.

Perhaps the most important milestone in the development of Vietnam - EU trade relations is the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the European Economic Community on October 22, 1990. Since the normalization of relations between Vietnam and the European Economic Community, economic and trade relations between Vietnam and the EU have continuously developed in both breadth and depth. Following the Vietnam - EU Textile Trade Agreement (December 15, 1992), it created conditions for strengthening trade relations between the two sides. In particular, on July 17, 1995, at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. Vietnam and the European Commission officially signed the Framework Cooperation Agreement. This relationship has had new developments because the agreement mentioned a

comprehensively cooperate between Vietnam and the EU in many fields. In order to promote bilateral trade relations, according to the signed framework agreement, Vietnam and the EU have granted each other the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) status, the EU has committed to granting goods originating from Vietnam the GSP regime, and the EU has agreed to extend and negotiate an increase in the import quota for Vietnamese textiles and garments, and recognized more than 30 Vietnamese seafood processing enterprises that meet EU quality and hygiene standards. A number of Vietnamese enterprises and many Vietnamese goods have been accepted and gradually gained a stable position in the EU market. The two sides have created favorable conditions for each other in the exchange of goods between the two sides, creating a favorable investment environment to increase investment between the two sides. The EU has created conditions to help Vietnam in the transition to a market economy. Poverty reduction and international economic integration. Thus, the early years of the 90s were the opening stage for the development of multifaceted relations between Vietnam and the EU. The agreements signed between the two sides are extremely important legal bases to promote Vietnam - EU trade relations in the following years. After Vietnam and the EU signed the cooperation framework agreement, the two sides implemented a cooperation strategy for the period 1995-2000 and are currently implementing a cooperation strategy for the period 2001-2006. The main goal is to strengthen cooperation between the two sides. The EU continues to assist Vietnam in transitioning to a market economy, integrating into the international economy and reducing poverty.

1. Import and export situation of Vietnam and EU 15

1.1. Export situation

1.1.1. Export turnover

Over the past 10 years, the economic and trade relations between Vietnam and EU15 have been continuously developed in many different fields. The trade scale between Vietnam and EU15 from 1990-2003 was estimated to have an average annual growth rate of 32.78%/year with an absolute increase of 335 million USD.

USD/year. This shows that EU15 is one of Vietnam's important trade partners, surpassing Japan to become Vietnam's largest export market.

As mentioned, after the Vietnam - EU cooperation framework agreement was signed in 1995, the economic and political cooperation between the two sides has made significant progress, especially in the field of trade. Before the agreement, Vietnam's total export turnover to the EU increased as follows: 1993/1992 increased by 39.3%, 1994/1993 increased by 32% and 1995/1994 increased by 45.4%. According to the data in the table, in 1997/1996 it increased by 78.6% and in 1998/1997 it increased by 32.2%. In 2000, 2001, and 2002, the increase was slow due to fluctuations in the world economy and decreased export prices. In 2003/2002, it increased by 21.8%. After signing the cooperation framework agreement, Vietnam's export turnover to the EU increased quite rapidly and stably. Vietnam's total export turnover with the scale of trade is increasingly expanding to many different products.

We see that Vietnam's export turnover to the EU increased very rapidly (except for 1991-1993). By 2003, the export turnover to the EU had reached 3450.0 USD, an increase of 28.2 times compared to 1990. Only in the period regulated by the Framework Agreement on Cooperation 1994-2000, Vietnam's export turnover to the EU increased by an average of 31.56% annually, while in the period 1990-1994, Vietnam's import and export turnover to the EU increased by only 28.31%/year.

The proportion of export turnover to the EU market in Vietnam's total import-export turnover has also increased quite steadily. This increase is much larger when compared with the proportion of the Chinese and US markets in Vietnam's total export turnover (see table).

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