Ottawa (VNA) – The Embassy of Vietnam in Ca𒈔nada on November 10 arranged a webina💫r onVietnam and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP), particularly chances for investment and export of home décorproducts.

The event, bringingtogether more than 100 firms of the two countries, provided the participantswith updates on Vietnam’s business climate and chances for Canada’s timberfirms, and helped businesses of the two countries connect and study markets. Speaking at the event,Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Pham Cao Phong underlined main factors thatturn Vietnam into an attractive destination, including its strategiclocation in the centre of Southeast Asia and efforts in strengtheninglegal framework and institutions. It is also a promisingconsumption market with a population of more than 96 million, with half of themunder 35, he added. The Vietnamesediplomat said it is a challenging time yet a major opportunity to bolster cooperationand bilateral economic-trade development, towards a common target ofsustainable growth and prosperity for the two countries, in the spirit of thecomprehensive partnership set up three years ago. Vietnam may become abridge for Canadian goods and services to access 660 million consumers in ASEANas well as other important markets in the region. At the same time,Canada can serve as a gateway for Vietnamese products to penetrate other marketsin America. Under the CPTPP, Vietnam’shome décor products enjoy zero percent tariffs when entering Canada, while tariffsof 6-9 percent are imposed on products of other Asian countries. Vietnam-Canada traderecorded a slight growth of 0.1 percent in the first half of this year while globaltrade plummeted. In 2019, Vietnam, the fifthlargest trade partner of Canada in Asia, imported timber worth about 25 millionUSD from Canada. It was also the fourth leading interior supplier of the NorthAmerican country./.