Vietnam, Israel Conclude Negotiations for Free Trade Pact

Viet · Apr 9, 2023

Israeli and Vietnamese officials conclude free trade negotiations in Israel, April 2, 2023.

Earlier this week, Vietnam announced that it will sign a free trade agreement with Israel after seven years of negotiations, an event that is timed to the 30th anniversary of relations between the two countries. According to a report by Reuters, which cited a Vietnamese government statement, the two nations will officially conclude the economic agreement later this year.

Bilateral trade between Israel and Vietnam rose 18 percent last year to $2.2 billion, the government said in the statement. It added that Vietnam’s largest exports to Israel include smartphones, footwear, and seafood. Its main imports from Israel are electronics and fertilizer.

Once the agreement is signed, Israel will become the 16th nation or grouping with which Vietnam has established a free trade pact, which includes bilateral agreements with Japan (2009), Chile (2014), South Korea (2015), and the United Kingdom (2021). Since the early 1990s, the country has also signed on to a number of multilateral trade pacts, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world’s largest free trade area, as well as free trade pacts with the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Together, these have stitched Vietnam tightly into the supply chains of the global economy, and helped produce a burgeoning manufacturing sector that has driven the country’s rapid economic growth.

It is also in the midst of negotiating a free trade pact with the European Free Trade Association, a grouping that includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.