Vietnam-Eurasion free trade agreement set to come into force

The ratification of the free trade zone agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is in its final stages, Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vnukov told TASS, adding that the agreement will come into force in the summer.

"We’re pinning big hopes on the agreement as it has become the first agreement for the EAEU of this kind made with a foreign state and has already been taken as an example for development of similar documents with a whole range of other countries, including in the Southeast Asia," he said.

According to Vnukov, the ratification of the agreement with all of its six participants is currently being finalized.

"We expect the document to come into force in the summer, and it is important for us to ensure it happens before other substantial agreements on preferential trade are enforced, first of all those with the European Union and within the Trans-Pacific Partnership," he added.

"Russian entrepreneurs will be able to better adjust to new terms of doing business and tap niche markets in Vietnam," the ambassador said.

On May 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law ratifying the agreement on the creation of a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and Vietnam, which is the first international agreement on preferential trade terms between the EAEU and a third country.

The draft agreement on free trade zone between the EAEU and Vietnam was signed on May 25, 2015 by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.