A Disappearance in Berlin Clouds a Trade Deal in Vietnam
- 7 years ago
A Disappearance in Berlin Clouds a Trade Deal in Vietnam
“But we are expecting a bad situation.”
The German Foreign Office said in an email that the Vietnam trade deal would need to win approval in both the German and European parliaments, and
that members of both bodies clearly saw the political implications of Mr. Thanh’s disappearance.
The European deal is especially attractive for Vietnam
because the European Union, which imported $39 billion in Vietnamese goods last year, is the country’s largest non-Asian investor and largest trading partner after China.
“It’s a trade agreement,” said Nguyen Chanh Phuong, the secretary general of the Handicraft
and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City, whose members have exported furniture to Europe since the 1990s.
“They’ll trade something.”
Le Hoai Anh, the chairwoman of Hal Group, a company in Ho Chi Minh City
that distributes and sells European cosmetics, said she worried about trade disruptions or punitive measures that might lead to higher import tariffs.
The largest benefits for the E. U.
would be in Germany, which last year imported $8 billion in goods from Vietnam — including footwear, textiles, coffee
and seafood — and sold it $2.3 billion in machinery, equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals and other products.
“But we are expecting a bad situation.”
The German Foreign Office said in an email that the Vietnam trade deal would need to win approval in both the German and European parliaments, and
that members of both bodies clearly saw the political implications of Mr. Thanh’s disappearance.
The European deal is especially attractive for Vietnam
because the European Union, which imported $39 billion in Vietnamese goods last year, is the country’s largest non-Asian investor and largest trading partner after China.
“It’s a trade agreement,” said Nguyen Chanh Phuong, the secretary general of the Handicraft
and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City, whose members have exported furniture to Europe since the 1990s.
“They’ll trade something.”
Le Hoai Anh, the chairwoman of Hal Group, a company in Ho Chi Minh City
that distributes and sells European cosmetics, said she worried about trade disruptions or punitive measures that might lead to higher import tariffs.
The largest benefits for the E. U.
would be in Germany, which last year imported $8 billion in goods from Vietnam — including footwear, textiles, coffee
and seafood — and sold it $2.3 billion in machinery, equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals and other products.