Vietnam signs up to World Trade Organisation

On November 7, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) presented its terms for admitting Vietnam as a member, after 11 years of attempts by Hanoi to join. Vietnam’s National Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed the offer on November 28 and membership will take effect from December 28.

On November 18-19, Vietnam hosted for the first time the annual gathering of the leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The capital Hanoi was abuzz with corporate leaders eager to cash in on the country’s large pool of low-cost labour, high educational standards and police-state repression of protests and opposition.

During the APEC summit, US President George Bush hailed the Vietnamese Communist Party for its sweeping pro-market economic policies. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice enthused: “It seems that commerce and economic development is just everywhere.” For its part, Vietnam’s Stalinist leadership welcomed Bush and Rice, who are responsible for the criminal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, with open arms.

More than 1,000 participants took part in APEC’s “CEO Summit”. “Vietnam has demonstrated to the world its capacity for quantum leaps. It’s clear that the government has recognised that broad-based reform and economic liberalisation are essential to Vietnam’s integration into the global economy,” Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, told the gathering.

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