Trade and investment agreements develop the commercial dimension of bilateral relations BETWEEN the EU and Vietnam, which are grounded and governed by the EU-Vietnam Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation, which came into force in October 2016. The free trade agreement establishes a framework for resolving future disputes between the EU and Vietnam over the interpretation and implementation of the agreement. It applies to most areas of the agreement and is faster and more effective in many respects than the dispute settlement mechanism in the WTO. The agreements must now be ratified by the Vietnamese National Assembly and EU member states in the case of the Investment Protection Agreement. The APC regulates the overall relationship between the EU and Vietnam. It is based on common interests and principles such as equality, mutual respect, the rule of law and human rights. It broadens the scope of cooperation in areas such as trade, the environment, energy, science and technology, good governance, tourism, culture, migration, the fight against terrorism and the fight against corruption and organised crime. It also allows Vietnam and the EU to further strengthen cooperation on global and regional challenges, including climate change, terrorism and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The APC provides that human rights, democracy and the rule of law are “essential elements” of UE-Vietnam relations as a whole. Therefore, the link between the free trade agreement and the CPA is important to ensure that human rights are also part of the trade relations between the parties.

Following the signing, the agreements will be submitted to the Vietnamese National Assembly for ratification and, on the EU side, to the European Parliament for approval, as well as to the respective national parliaments of EU member states in the case of the investment protection agreement. Overall, ASEAN is the EU`s third largest trading partner outside Europe, after the United States and China. Ensuring better access for EU exporters to the dynamic ASEAN market is an EU priority. Negotiations for a trade and investment agreement between the region and ASEAN began in 2007 and were interrupted by mutual agreement in 2009 to relax a bilateral negotiating format. These bilateral trade and investment agreements were designed as building blocks for a future agreement between the regions.