US embassy cable - 05HANOI817

UNCLAS HANOI 000817 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND EB/TPP/BTA/ANA 
STATE PASS USTR FOR EBRYAN AND GHICKS 
USDA FOR FAS 
USDOC FOR 4430/MAC/ASIA/OPB/VLC/HPPHO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, VM, WTRO, VN, WTO 
SUBJECT: VIETNAM:  PM DIRECTIVE ON ADVANCING WTO LEGISLATION 
 
1. On April 4, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai issued a 
Directive aimed at advancing the pace of Vietnam's 
legislative calendar in support of WTO accession.  The 
Directive follows on and provides guidance for implementing 
the legislative program the GVN presented to the National 
Assembly (NA) on March 2. The Directive: 
 
-- Tasks ministers and other heads of agencies with direct 
responsibility for ensuring timely completion of WTO-related 
draft legislation. 
 
-- Instructs GVN drafting committees to focus primarily on 
aspects of legislation that are important to the WTO process 
and to cooperate with the NA Committee responsible for 
reviewing the legislation. 
 
-- Tasks the National Committee for International Economic 
Cooperation (NCIEC), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu 
Khoan, with translating draft laws and ordinances and 
sending them to the WTO for review. 
 
-- Tasks the Ministry of Trade (in coordination with the 
Ministry of Justice (MOJ)) with ensuring that all draft 
legislation is consistent with WTO requirements. 
 
-- Instructs ministries and other GVN agencies to draft all 
necessary implementing regulations in parallel with draft 
laws. 
 
-- Instructs ministries not to issue documents containing 
legal norms in the form of official letters (OL) and/or 
notifications.  (Note:  This appears to be a direct response 
to USG concerns about transparency. OLs are not classified 
by the GVN as legal normative documents and so there is no 
requirement to publish them. However, ministries frequently 
put policy decisions in OLs.  End Note.) 
 
-- Tasks MOJ, in coordination with MOT, to determine what 
additional legislation (not already included on the 
legislative schedule) the GVN may also need to draft. 
 
2. An Annex to the Directive lists 23 laws and ordinances to 
be approved by the National Assembly in 2005. 
 
3. An unofficial translation of the Directive has been 
emailed to EAP/BCLTV and USTR. 
 
4. Comment:  This Directive addresses many of the concerns 
that the we and other key WTO members have consistently 
voiced to the GVN including the slow pace of the legislative 
calendar, the need for greater coordination with the 
National Assembly, and the lack of transparency of the 
drafting process.  Issuance of the Directive is a positive 
indication that the GVN better understands the legislative 
requirements for accession and is very focused on trying to 
meet them.  However, since the GVN has not yet begun to 
submit draft legislation to the WTO Secretariat, it is 
impossible to assess whether the legislation will meet WTO 
requirements and enable Vietnam to attain its goal of 
accession by the end of 2005.  End Comment. 
 
MARINE