Vietnam's Trade Policy Dilemmas

Vietnam faces alternative options in opening its economy to trade. It is about to join the World Trade Organization; as a member of the ASEAN Free Trade Area it is contemplating extending the regional trade area to include China, Korea and Japan; and it has recently concluded a bilateral agreement with the United States. Opening up to trade is a two-edged sword, with the beneficial effects of improved market access and resource allocation liable to be partially or totally offset by adverse terms of trade effects and significant, albeit one-off, cost of structural adjustment. Simulations of unilateral, bilateral, regional and multilateral liberalization reform and a tariff harmonization scenario are undertaken using a general equilibrium model, GTAP. Results indicate that significant welfare benefits could be obtained from unilateral liberalization without the need to negotiate with others. Harmonization of tariffs at the current average also shows to be beneficial in raising tariff revenues with little need for adjustment. The extension of AFTA brings moderate benefits, as does a multilateral reform which reduces applied tariffs by 50 per cent. There are only limited gains in the agricultural and resources sectors, as these major exports face low tariff barriers. However, the market for Vietnam's textiles and apparel is crucially important.Vietnam, trade, WTO negotiations

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Vietnam

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Trade and Development in Vietnam: Exploring Investment Linkages

This paper presents and uses a new, stylized single country dynamic CGE model to explore the trade-development linkages in Vietnam. Application of this framework involves addressing three basic questions: 1. Does a model that properly determines capacity additions and more fully captures macroeconomic accounting and growth dynamics predict trade levels in a satisfactory manner? 2. Are those capacity additions determined by trade liberalization, and if so, which aspects of trade liberalization? 3. Under this framework what are expected impacts of trade liberalization initiatives, such as past bilateral trade agreements and recent WTO accession, taking into account their potential effect on incentives to invest via both tariff changes and institutional reforms? We also explore the role of the state in determining investment patterns, since the government of Vietnam has played a crucial role in setting both the aggregate level and sectoral pattern of investment in the past. But recently there has been a recovery of foreign investment as well as an upsurge of investment by the domestic private sector. Moreover, Vietnam’s WTO accession agreement was as much about incentives to FDI as it was about tariff concessions, and it spurred ongoing institutional reforms that impact the investment climate.trade, development, Vietman, investment linkages

Dragon by the Tail, Dragon by the Head, Bilateralism and Globalism in East Asia

In this paper, we examine the bilateral implications of regional and global trade arrangements in the East Asian context. Using a dynamic global CGE model, we examine a variety of trade scenarios, in terms of bilateral relations between China and two of its most populace regional partners, Vietnam and Japan. Given the differences between the latter two economies, it might be reasonable to expect divergence in the bilateral outcomes. Our findings indicate that differences in initial conditions can indeed have a significant impact on bilateral adjustments, and that these can be adverse for some partners in the absence of policies that promote trade complementarity. By the latter we mean bilateral import and export patterns where the aggregate grows faster for each country than their total trade, but which help sustain bilateral balance of payments equilibrium.Dragon; Head; Bilateralism; Globalism

Ordinal Welfare Comparisons with Multiple Discrete Indicators: A First Order Dominance Approach and Application to Child Poverty

We develop an ordinal method for making welfare comparisons between populations with multidimensional discrete well-being indicators observed at the micro level. The approach assumes that, for each well-being indicator, the levels can be ranked from worse to better; however, no assumptions are made about relative importance of any dimension nor about complementarity/substitutability relationships between dimensions. The method is based on the concept of multidimensional first order dominance. We introduce a rapid and reliable algorithm for empirically determining whether one population dominates another on the basis of available binary indicators by drawing upon linear programming theory. These approaches are applied to household survey data from Vietnam and Mozambique with a focus on child poverty comparisons over time and between regions.

Vietnam’s Accession to the World Trade Organization: Economic Projections to 2020

This study presents a set of assessments of the long term economic effects of Vietnam’s accession to the WTO. Generally speaking, our results indicate that Vietnam would benefit from accelerating its participation in more open multilateralism. However, it is also clear from our analysis that these benefits will remain modest in the absence of comprehensive and complementary domestic economic reforms. Passive external liberalization, even when coupled with determined domestic reform, is inferior to WTO participation combined with negotiated market access and other activist multilateral agreements. Finally, our analysis shows that capital insufficiency is a very serious constraint on Vietnamese economic growth and diversification. Capital market reform can play an essential role in dynamic and sustained economic development for the country.Vietnam, WTO, Trade

PREPARATION OF ORAL CURCUMIN DELIVERY FROM 3D-NANO-CELLULOSE NETWORKS MATERIAL PRODUCED BY ACETOBACTER XYLINUM USING OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE

Objective: To prepare oral curcumin delivery and optimize curcumin loading of 3D-nano-cellulose networks material (3DCM) by looking into the impact of process variables on the response utilizing response surface methodology (RSM) and Box-Behnken design. Methods: Optimization of curcumin loading of 3DCM was conducted using RSM and Box-Behnken model. Impact of four independent variables, including, the concentration of curcumin (X1), temperature (X2), shaking speed (X3), and time of loading (X4), was studied on one dependent response, that is, an amount of loaded curcumin (Y). Characterization of optimized 3DCM including curcumin was examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis . Results: R2 value for Y was approximately 0.94. X1 possessed the biggest positive impact compared to X2, X3 and X4. Optimized conditions for curcumin loading of 3DCM were X1 at 3 mg/ml, X2 at 40 °C, X3 at 120 rpm and X4 at 120 min. SEM photograph of 3DCM surfaces were found including fibers creating a 3D network structure. FTIR spectra studies depicted that there was no interaction between curcumin and 3DCM. Conclusion: The data obtained in this study thus suggest that curcumin loaded 3DCM was successfully fabricated to give a potential oral delivery system of curcumin

TURBIDITY REMOVAL BY MUCILAGE FROM BASELLA ALBA

Coagulation and flocculation are preliminary used in water treatment processes for turbidity removal, using popularily synthetic chemicals with health and environmental concerns. The use of natural flocculants has known to be a promising alteratives for chemical ones due to their environmental friendly behavior. This research investigated turbidity removal efficiency of mucilage extracted from Basella alba - an indigenous species in Vietnam - in the role of a flocculant. The removal efficiency of mucilage was investigated in combination with PAC or Alum on To Lich river water by mean of Jar tests. PAC or Alum alone can remove maximum 97% and 90% turbidity of To Lich river water at its original pH for the sedimentation time of 30 minutes. The combination of mucilage and PAC or Alum increased the efficiencies of turbidity removal and reduced the amount of chemicals needed. The corresponding increases were maximum 7% and 18%, respectively; while the reduction of PAC/Alum used was 75-80%

Hopf algebras and alternating multiple zeta values in positive characteristic

In \cite{IKLNDP23} we presented a systematic study of algebra structures of multiple zeta values in positive characteristic introduced by Thakur as analogues of classical multiple zeta values of Euler. In this paper we construct algebra and Hopf algebra structures of alternating multiple zeta values introduced by Harada, extending our previous work. Our results could be considered as an analogue of those of Hoffman \cite{Hof00} and Racinet \cite{Rac02} in the classical setting. The proof is based on two new ingredients: the first one is a direct and explicit construction of the shuffle Hopf algebra structure, and the second one is the notion of horizontal maps.Comment: 37 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.0590