How Vietnam joins WTO, recalls Pascal Lamy
PSNews – Pascal Lamy, former General Director of the World Trade Organization (WTO) shared that Vietnam’s joining WTO was like a pregnant woman, after a long wait, she successfully gave birth to her baby. The process witnessed many difficulties and challenges but also much joy and happiness, he said.
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| Pascal Lamy, former General Director of WTO and French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary at the meeting. |
In a warm meeting with local reporters on the afternoon of December 18, in Hanoi, Pascal Lamy showed off a medal pinned on his chest and said, it was a medal “Friendship” presented by the State of Vietnam 10 years ago for his great contribution to Vietnam's WTO accession.
Pascal Lamy recalled, after 11 years with 15 negotiations, on November 7, the Vietnam's WTO accession ceremony took place in Geneva (Switzerland). When Vietnam started the negotiation process, he was the European Commissioner for Trade, and when Vietnam was admitted as the 150th member of WTO, he was the General Director of the global organization.
Therefore, he understood and recognized Vietnam's efforts during the whole process.
He stressed that since then, Vietnam's economy has grown remarkably, reflecting its continuous growth rate of trade and investment, and improved lives of the Vietnamese people.
At the meeting, Pascal Lamyalso introduced a project in which Paris is a candidate for the host of the World Expo 2015. He said that this year-theme of Paris is about environmental protection, quite similar to the themes which Vietnam chose in the past World Expo. Therefore, he hoped to receive support from Vietnam.
Pascal Lamy is a French representative in the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, an organization that promotes economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. Vietnam is also a member of the council.
