US embassy cable - 05HANOI72

UNCLAS HANOI 000072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE PASS USTR EBRYAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, PREL, VM, KICC, WTO 
SUBJECT:  WTO ENTRY A PREREQUISITE FOR ARTICLE 98 AGREEMENT, 
VIETNAM SAYS 
 
REF:  04 HANOI 3269 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: The GVN has transfered responsibility for 
negotiating an Article 98 agreement from the MFA to the 
Ministry of Justice.  MOJ lawyers, with the encouragement of 
the Minister, are actively tackling the task of obtaining 
internal consensus on the agreement.  However, the GVN fears 
other WTO members might hinder Vietnam's accession if it 
agrees to sign an Article 98 agreement with the United 
States.  As a result, GVN officials say that "no amount of 
urging" will motivate the GVN to sign before Vietnam 
clinches its WTO membership.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Following up on our earlier delivery of the draft 
agreement to the MOJ (reftel), political specialist spoke to 
Dr. Nguyen Cong Hong, the MOJ officer tasked with 
shepherding the Article 98 agreement through the GVN 
bureaucracy.  Dr. Hong said that Minister of Justice Uong 
Chu Luu is "personally interested" in the issue and has 
instructed Dr. Hong to arrange an interagency meeting for 
the second half of January to discuss the Agreement with 
relevant line ministries.  "There are no obstacles (to 
signing an agreement) anywhere within the government," Dr. 
Hong said. 
 
3. (SBU) However, Dr. Hong said that Vietnam will not be 
able to sign an Article 98 agreement with the United States 
before it completes its bid to join the WTO because "Vietnam 
has to gather support from all WTO members for its accession 
bid, and signing the agreement with the United States would 
just make some of the countries unhappy."  No matter how 
much the United States might "urge" Vietnam, an Article 98 
agreement will have to wait for Vietnam's WTO entry, Dr. 
Hong said, because "joining the WTO is Vietnam's top 
priority."  It is an issue of timing, not substance, he 
concluded. 
 
4. (SBU) Comment: This is the most explicit confirmation we 
have had from the GVN that external pressure is the cause of 
GVN foot-dragging on an Articl 98 agreement.  Previous 
interlocutors at MFA (which had responsibility for the 
Article 98 agreemet deliberations before the handoff to MOJ 
in lat 2004) have suggested that the culprit is the EU, nd 
the EU Delegation Ambassador admitted to Ambasador 
Burghardt in July 2004 that the EU had been lobbying Vietnam 
against concluding an agreement with the United States. 
While we doubt that te EU would actually veto Vietnam's WTO 
bid in retaliation for Vietnam signing an Article 98 
agreement with us, the GVN apparently feels it is unwise to 
take any chances.  Perhaps the one benefit of the current 
state of play -- that the GVN's concerns are about timing, 
not substance -- is that getting to "yes" on an Article 98 
agreement is now a policy decision we can raise at high 
levels without GVN interlocutors attributing the delay to 
GVN working-level technical issues.  End Comment. 
MARINE 
 
 
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