Vietnam and the European Union (EU) are likely to sign the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) soon, Daniel Muller, ASEAN Regional Manager for the German Asia-Pacific Business Association, said in an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reporters in Germany.

The EVFTA is the bloc’s first comprehensive free trade deal with a developing country in Asia. Negotiations began in June 2012 and were completed in December 2015 with contents similar to those with Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

The deal needs approval from the European Council, the European Parliament and all EU member countries.

Muller said the EU and Japan, Singapore and Vietnam share interests in free trade agreements, especially at a time when the US is carrying out its trade protectionism policy, withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and denied to deal with common crises in multilateral free trade.

According to him, Vietnam and the EU reached basic consensus on the deal in 2015, and Vietnam needs to fix management shortcomings already mentioned by the bloc.

VNA