2007年VOA标准英语-Vietnam, Once Isolated, Celebrates WTO Entry

By Matt Steinglass
Hanoi
11 January 2007

Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization became official on Thursday. The event is a milestone¹ in a long transition for Vietnam, which is shifting from a command to a market economy, and from isolation² to international openness and globalization. Matt Steinglass has more from Hanoi.

Vietnam is welcomed as 150th member of WTO on giant poster over entrance of WTO headquarters in Geneva, 11 Jan 2007

Vietnam's status as the newest member of the WTO officially came into effect Thursday. The trade terms Vietnam agreed to in years of negotiations³ with the WTO's 149 other members now have the force of law.

Nguyen Thi Bich, director of international relations at Vietnam's Ministry⁴ of Finance, says the move means tariffs⁶ on many categories of goods imported into Vietnam have been slashed⁷.

Bich says Vietnam had committed to reduce tariffs on 1,800 categories of goods, but would actually cut even more than that. She says average tariffs will drop from about 17 percent to 14 or 15 percent for now.

Further reductions over the next few years will bring tariffs on some goods, including information technology products like computers, down to close to zero.

Exporters are eager to gain access to Vietnam's increasingly wealthy consumers. American companies already enjoyed low tariffs on some goods through the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral⁸ trade agreement, or BTA.

But trade expert Shiumei Lin, of the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, says many new tariffs are even lower than under BTA - and they apply to some products, such as pork, which Vietnam once considered too sensitive to open up.

"For example, the [new] pork tariff⁵ is pretty low, I think it's 15 percent," she said. "Whereas pork was not negotiated at all under the BTA It was considered a sensitive product, so it wasn't negotiated."

But for importers, reduced tariffs are only part of the story.

"What is more important than the tariffs, even, is the fact that Vietnam's entire trade regime is reformed … There's a whole list of laws that they've had to rewrite in order to qualify for WTO accession today," said Lin.

For Vietnamese consumers, that may mean more choice of foreign products. Tariffs on imported televisions, for instance, dropped from 50 percent to 40 percent Thursday, and will eventually drop to 20 percent.

Economist⁹ Vivek Suri of the World Bank's Hanoi office says consumers won't see many immediate¹⁰ price cuts, but over the long run, they will benefit.

"It's not only price reductions that matter, it is the quality of the goods that matter as well," he said. "So perhaps you might not see price reductions, but you might see a greater variety of goods coming into the country, and of a superior quality."

For many Vietnamese, joining the WTO is about more than economics. During the country's wars against France and the U.S., the country was isolated¹¹ from the global community.

That isolation deepened after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, when the U.S. and other countries cut diplomatic relations and boycotted¹² Vietnamese trade. WTO accession is seen as the latest step in a long process of what the Vietnamese call "hoi nhap", or "integration¹³".

Dung Trung Quoc, a historian and a member of Vietnam's National Assembly, says joining the WTO represents a return to normality for Vietnam. He says the country's long wars, despite their victorious¹⁴ endings, created abnormal ways of thinking, which made it harder to integrate with the rest of the world, and to accept normal values like the market economy.

Such problems persisted even after Vietnam turned to the market economy in 1986. Nguyen Tran Bat founded Vietnam's first business consulting company in the late 1980s. He says in the early 1990s, even Vietnamese who worked with foreign companies were suspicious of the capitalists.

Bat says Vietnamese working in joint-stock companies formed an all-Vietnamese club to exchange information on how to protect themselves against their foreign investors¹⁵.

Today, habits like those are largely a thing of the past. Young Vietnamese don't think of capitalism¹⁶ as a foreign imposition, but simply as the way most of the world does business.

In mid-December, 400,000 Vietnamese turned out for parades in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City celebrating the country's admission to the WTO.

They weren't celebrating cheaper consumer electronics. They were celebrating Vietnam's struggle to become a normal country - one whose exports are expected to rise by 20 percent this year.

1 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

2 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

3 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

6 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

7 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

11 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

12 boycotted   

抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Athletes from several countries boycotted the Olympic Games. 有好几国的运动员抵制奥林匹克运动会。
• The opposition party earlier boycotted the Diet agenda, demanding Miyaji's resignation. 反对党曾杯葛国会议程，要宫路下台。

13 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

14 victorious   

adj.胜利的，得胜的

参考例句：

• We are certain to be victorious.我们定会胜利。
• The victorious army returned in triumph.获胜的部队凯旋而归。

15 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

16 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。