RESOLUTION

RATIFICATION OF COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP) AND RELEVANT DOCUMENTS

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Pursuant to the Constitution of Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

Pursuant to the Law on International treaties No. 108/2016/QH13;

At the request of the President in Proposal No. 05/TTr-CTN dated document 23, 2018 on ratification of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and relevant documents;

In consideration of the Government’s Report No. 522/BC-CP dated October 24, 2018 on description of CPTPP and relevant documents; Report No. 2905/BC-UBDN14 dated October 30, 2018 of Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly and comments of the National Assembly delegates,

RESOLVES THAT:

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Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is signed on March 08, 2018 in Santiago of Chile, and relevant documents are ratified. The whole text of CPTPP is provided in Appendix 01 hereof.

Article 2. Application of CPTPP

The entire content of CPTPP is applicable; the directly applicable regulations of CPTPP are specified in Appendix 02 hereof.

Article 3. Organization of CPTPP implementation

1. The Government, the People’s Supreme Court, the People’s Supreme Procuracy, relevant organizations shall review the bills in Appendix 3 and other legislative documents in order to propose timely amendments, ensure uniformity of the legal system and adherence to CPTPP commitments.

2. The Prime Minister shall consider approving and directing relevant central and local organizations to execute their plans for CPTPP implementation; focus on human resources development to make the best use of the opportunities and benefits of CPTT; develop and implement preventative measures against negative effects that may occur during implementation of CPTPP; spread information about CPTPP to raise awareness of the political system, businesses and the people of Vietnam’s accession to CPTPP.

3. The Government shall direct relevant ministries to complete procedures for ratification of CPTPP and notify its date of entry into force for Vietnam.

Article 4. Supervision

The National Assembly, Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Ethnicity Council, other committees of the National Assembly, the National Assembly delegates shall supervise the implementation of this Resolution.

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PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY




Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan

APPENDIX 1

FULL TEXT OF CPTPP AND RELEVANT DOCUMENTS
(Enclosed with the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 72/2018/QH14 dated November 12, 2018)

(The electronic file can be downloaded from http://dbqh.na.gov.vn/A16.08_HIEP_DINH_CPTPP/)

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CPTPP COMMITMENTS APPLICABLE WHEN CPTPP ENTERS INTO FORCE FOR VIETNAM
(Enclosed with the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 72/2018/QH14 dated November 12, 2018)

No.

Directly applicable regulations of CPTPP

Implementation time

1

Tariff schedules in Appendix of Chapter 2 of CPTPP.

Entry into force of CPTPP

2

Article 1.3 Section B of Chapter 1:

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Entry into force of CPTPP

3

Article 1.3 Section B of Chapter 1:

“remanufactured good means a good classified in HS[1] Chapters 84 through 90 or under heading 94.02 except goods classified under HS headings 84.18, 85.09, 85.10, and 85.16, 87.03 or subheadings 8414.51, 8450.11, 8450.12, 8508.11, and 8517.11, that is entirely or partially composed of recovered materials and: (a) has a similar life expectancy and performs the same as or similar to such a good when new; and (b) has a factory warranty similar to that applicable to such a good when new”

Entry into force of CPTPP

4

Article 2.21 of Chapter 2 on Agricultural Export Subsidies:

No Party shall adopt or maintain any export subsidy on any agricultural good except the measures mentioned in Article 10 of WTO Agreement on Agriculture

Entry into force of CPTPP

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Article 2.26 of Chapter 2 on Agricultural Safeguards.

Originating agricultural goods from any Party shall not be subject to any duties applied by a Party pursuant to a special safeguard taken under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture

Entry into force of CPTPP

6

Article 3.10 of Chapter 3 on accumulation.

Full accumulation is permitted, which means accumulation of the added value of non-originating materials and value of the originating product.

Entry into force of CPTPP

7

Point a and Clause 1 Article 3.23 Chapter 3 on Waiver of Certificate of Origin

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Entry into force of CPTPP

8

Clause 12 Article 7.13 of Chapter 7 on Transparency

There must be an interval of more than six months between the date it publishes a final SPS measure [2] and the date on which the measure takes effect, unless the measure is intended to address an urgent problem or the measure is of a trade-facilitating nature.

Entry into force of CPTPP

9

Article 7.14 of Chapter 7 on Emergency Measures

In case an emergency measure is adopted, it is mandatory to review the scientific basis of that measure within six months and make available the results of the review to any Party on request.

Entry into force of CPTPP

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Article 7.16 of Chapter 7 on information exchange.

The parties shall cooperate in exchange of information relevant to SPS

Entry into force of CPTPP

11

Part B of Chapter 9 on investor-state dispute settlement.

Procedures for filing and settling disputes between a State and investor of another Party.

Entry into force of CPTPP

12

Clause 2 to 9 Article 7.8 of Chapter 7 on equivalence.

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3. When an importing Party receives a request for an equivalence assessment and determines that the information provided by the exporting Party is sufficient, it shall initiate the equivalence assessment within a reasonable period of time.

4. When an importing Party commences an equivalence assessment, that Party shall promptly, on request of the exporting Party, explain its equivalence process and plan for making the equivalence determination and, if the determination results in recognition, for enabling trade.

5. In determining the equivalence of a sanitary or phytosanitary measure, an importing Party shall take into account available knowledge, information and relevant experience, as well as the regulatory competence of the exporting Party.

6. The importing Party shall recognise the equivalence of a sanitary or phytosanitary measure if the exporting Party objectively demonstrates to the importing Party that the exporting Party’s measure:

a. achieves the same level of protection as the importing Party’s; or

b. has the same effect in achieving the objective as the importing[3].

7. When an importing Party adopts a measure that recognises the equivalence of an exporting Party’s specific sanitary or phytosanitary measure, group of measures or measures on a systems-wide basis, the importing Party shall communicate the measure it has adopted to the exporting Party in writing and implement the measure within a reasonable period of time.

8. The Parties involved in an equivalence determination that results in recognition are encouraged, if mutually agreed, to report the outcome to the Committee.

9. If an equivalence determination does not result in recognition by the importing Party, the importing Party shall provide the exporting Party with the rationale for its decision.

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13

Article 1.1 of Chapter 11 on financial services.

“financial institution of another Party” means a financial institution, including a branch, located in the territory of a Party that is controlled by persons of another Party.

“new financial service” means a financial service not supplied in the Party’s territory that is supplied within the territory of another Party, and includes any new form of delivery of a financial service or the sale of a financial product that is not sold in the Party’s territory.

Entry into force of CPTPP

14

Sub-categories of services in NCM[4] I, II and III of CPTPP

Entry into force of CPTPP

15

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The Parties shall explore opportunities for further cooperation, collaboration and information exchange between the Parties on sanitary and phytosanitary matters of mutual interest such as trade facilitation initiatives and technical assistance, with the goal of eliminating unnecessary obstacles to trade between the Parties.

Entry into force of CPTPP

APPENDIX 3

AMENDMENTS TO EXISTING LAWS UNDER SCHEDULE OF CPTPP COMMITMENTS
(Enclosed with the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 72/2018/QH14 dated November 12, 2018)

No.

Name

Amendments

Effective date

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2012’s Labor Code

Group of content 1: Trade Union – Workers’ organizations

Amend Chapter XIII of 2012’s Labor Code on the Union towards allowing establishment of workers’ representative organizations that do not belong to the system of Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.

- Allow workers to establish and joint workers’ representative organizations that do not belong to the system of Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.

- Establish principles on rules and procedures for establishment of registration of workers’ representative organizations (the Government shall elaborate and provides guidelines after being assigned by the National Assembly).

Group of content 2: Dialogues in the workplace, collective bargaining, labor dispute - strike

Add to Chapter V, Chapter XIII and Chapter XIV of 2012’s Labor Code regulations on the union, workers’ representative organizations, right to dialogues in the workplace, settlement of labor dispute, strike, among which labor dispute settlement involves multiple representative organizations of employee in terms of the right to collective bargaining, etc. 

Review the 2012’s Law on union after the Labor Code is amended in order to ensure uniformity of the legal system.

Specified by CPTPP [5].

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2

2005’s Law on Intellectual property (amended in 2009)

Amend Article 148: Remove conditions for registration of third party to a contract; add regulations on legal use of trademarks by recipients of licenses as owners, procedures for establishment, maintenance and execution of trademarks.

Entry into force of CPTPP

Amend Article 130 to facilitate settlement of disputes over domain names or apply ICANN’s Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy; impose appropriate penalties against possession of domain names that are identical or confusingly similar to existing trade marks for profiteering.

Amend Clause 3 Article 80 towards using the criterion “likely to cause confusion” or keeps Clause 3 Article 80 unchanged but clarify the exceptions to brand owners’ right to geographical indications.

Amend Clause 3 of Article 60 towards expansion of exceptions of novelty.

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Amend Clause 1 Article 72: a trademark must be a visual and/or audio sign.

2 years after entry into force of CPTPP

Amend Article 128 to permit exclusive protection of experiment data used for registration of agricultural chemical products.

5 years after entry into force of CPTPP, 5 more years if Vietnam’s implementation is not complained by any other Party

Add regulations on: (i) assurance of availability of information and time for patent holders to exercise their rights before the products are launched; (ii) authority to automatically initiate border measures against exports or imports suspected as counterfeit or pirated copyright goods when they are under customs control.

3 years after entry into force of CPTPP

3

2015’s Criminal Code (amended in 2017)

Add regulations on penalties for (i) export of counterfeit trademark goods for the purpose of distribution; (ii) import and export of pirated copyright goods and goods infringing related rights for the purpose of distribution; (iii) violations that involve counterfeit packages, labels; infringement of trade secrets; (iv) infringement of trade secrets and (v) criminal liability of judicial persons.

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4

2015’s the Criminal Procedure Code (amended in 2017)

In Clause 1 Article 155, remove the reference to Article 226 of the 2015’s Criminal Code that allows competent authorities to initiate criminal prosecution against infringement of industrial property rights without request of the victim.

3 years after entry into force of CPTPP

5

2000’s the Law on Insurance Business (amended in 2010)

Add regulations on ancillary services for insurance such as risk assessment and counseling services, support services and appraisal services.

Entry into force of CPTPP

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2010’s Law of Food safety

Add requirements that SPS measures in emergency must have their scientific basics reviewed within 6 months

Entry into force of CPTPP

7

Anti-corruption Law (to be ratified during 6^th session of the 14^th National Assembly)

Expand the subjects of corruption to the private sectors; add regulations on prevention, discovery and actions against corruption in the private sector.

Entry into force of CPTPP

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[1] Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO).

[2] sanitary or phytosanitary measure

[3] No Party shall have recourse to dispute settlement under Chapter 28 (Dispute Settlement) for this subparagraph.

[4] Non-conformable measures

[5] In case of a dispute, Vietnam will not incur trade penalties for 03 years reagarding all obligations and 5 years regarding “freedom of association” and “right to collective bargaining”.