Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien had a working session with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington D.C.,  on May 22 (local time).

Minister Dien was quoted by the Government News as reiterating that Vietnam has huge and stable demand for U.S. products, equipment, and services, particularly in high technology and energy sectors.

Vietnam is committed to promoting a transparent and healthy trade environment and stands ready to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. in combating trade fraud, origin fraud, and illegal transshipment, asserted the Vietnamese minister.

With the goal of becoming a high-income developed country by 2045, Vietnam identifies the U.S. as one of its leading strategic partners and seeks to enhance economic and trade relations towards a balanced, sustainable, and mutually beneficial manner.

He called on the U.S. to work together with Vietnam to resolve existing issues in economic and trade relations, soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy, and remove the country from the D1 and D3 lists that restrict the export of high-tech products to bring practical benefits to both countries and improve the trade balance in a fair, harmonious, and sustainable direction,  the minister said.

For his part, Secretary Lutnick hailed Vietnam's efforts and goodwill in the negotiations on a bilateral reciprocal trade agreement, welcoming the two countries to foster stronger ties in high-tech sectors and areas with high added value.

Vietnam is an important and attractive market for U.S. businesses, noted the host, expressing his hope that the Southeast Asian nation would continue to facilitate U.S. investment projects to expand two-way trade, especially increasing imports of goods from the U.S.

Both sides shared the view that Vietnam and the U.S. are highly complementary economies and have great potential for further cooperation.

The two sides vowed to continue promoting technical dialogue and maintaining high-level exchanges to soon achieve substantive progress in the negotiations, aiming to build a stable and long-term economic and trade cooperation framework.