|
|
Mission Statement
The Fund for Reconciliation and Development builds
bridges between the United States and Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia and Cuba. Our non-partisan programs have
sought since 1985 to heal the wounds of war by
fostering mutual understanding and respect and by
addressing lessons and legacies of conflict. We
encourage and facilitate cooperation in education,
trade, people-to-people exchanges, and humanitarian
and development assistance, working in partnership
with foundations, other not-for-profit
organizations, business, academic institutions and
governments.
+++++++++++++
Washington Conferences
June 19-22
FRD is organizing linked but separate conferences on
legacies and lessons of the process of US
normalization with Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam.
Participants are urged to arrange personal meetings
with Congressional staff to address PNTR and Agent
Orange issues.
An invitation flyer, draft agenda and registration
form can be found by clicking on our web site ,
www.ffrd.org. ++++++++++++++
Our ability to continue this work depends not
only on program grants from foundations but also on
modest to very generous donations from individuals.
Please contribute as much as is comfortable and
consistent with the importance you give to FRD's
work. You will help us to obtain a $50,000 matching
grant.
John McAuliff
Executive Director
Click here to contribute.
|
Links of interest
|
|
|
Down to the wire: the final round of US-Vietnam WTO
negotiations end successfully but time is tight for
the US Congress to grant Permanent Normal Trade
Relations, which will enable Vietnam to enter the
WTO this year. However, business groups; NGO’s;
diplomats from both countries; and Congress itself
are moving rapidly toward the PNTR debate and vote.
Meanwhile, legislative relief in the form of trade
preferences for Cambodia, Laos and other
Asian-Pacific LDC’s looks increasingly unlikely as
this Congress heads into the homestretch. Cambodia
and the United States reach a watershed when they
agree to launch a Peace Corps program in 2007. On
another front, the plaintiffs’ appeal in the lawsuit
on behalf of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange
appears bogged down in the courts, with no hearing
likely until late in the year.
--Catharin Dalpino, Washington Representative
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
·
US and Vietnam Complete 12th and Final WTO Round |
|
|
The May 14 announcement that the United States and
Vietnam had reached agreement in principle on
outstanding trade issues related to Vietnam’s entry
into the World Trade Organization, marked the finish
of Hanoi’s series of bilateral negotiations on WTO
accession. Vietnam began bilateral rounds in 1995,
and talks with the United States were the last to be
completed.. The highlights of the final round,
conducted in Washington May 9-13, were Vietnam’s
agreement to lower tariffs on US industrial and farm
products and to remove non-tariff barriers to US
services. Vietnam has also agreed to abolish
subsidies for its export garment industry. The two
countries expect to sign an agreement in June. This
will most likely be accomplished when incoming US
Trade Representative Susan Schwab visits Hanoi that
month for an APEC trade ministers’ meeting.
Vietnam must be given PNTR status because it is
subject to the Jackson-Vanik Amendment in US trade
law, which places tariffs and other restrictions on
imports from some communist and former communist
countries. By granting PNTR, Congress will
essentially be terminating Vietnam’s Jackson-Vanik
status. Pressure is mounting on Congress to pass
PNTR before the August recess, since Vietnam will
request WTO entry in the second half of this year.
Strictly speaking, Vietnam’s accession to the WTO
does not depend upon PNTR; rather, without PNTR the
US would be denied access to Vietnamese markets
comparable to other WTO members once Vietnam has
joined the WTO. However, such a scenario would
deliver a major economic blow to Vietnam, and so
both Vietnamese and US policymakers view PNTR as
necessary for Hanoi’s entry into the WTO.
Although Congress will not formally consider PNTR
for Vietnam until an agreement is signed, a
significant amount of groundwork is already
underway. In mid- April Speaker of the US House of
Representatives Dennis Hastert led a Congressional
delegation to Vietnam and informally signaled his
support for PNTR. Senator Max Baucus, the ranking
member on the Senate Finance Committee, has also
stated his support for PNTR in a statement released
almost simultaneously with the US Trade
Representative’s announcement of the conclusion of
talks on May 14.
Despite these early and encouraging statements, PNTR
is not automatically assured. In April the House
Subcommittee on International Human Rights, chaired
by Congressman Chris Smith, held hearings on human
rights in Vietnam, which was tacitly understood to
be a warning that Vietnam’s Congressional critics
may attempt to place conditions on a PNTR bill. As
well, on May 3 the US Commission on International
Religious Freedom called for renewal of Vietnam’s
designation as a Country of Particular Concern on
religious freedom issues.
The non-governmental community is also preparing for
the PNTR debate. A US-Vietnam WTO Coalition,
shepherded by the US-ASEAN Business Council has been
established. For information,
click here.
In addition, FRD is circulating a petition to
Congress urging PNTR passage. |
|
|
View the PNTR petition |
|
|
|
·
Bill Gates Visits Vietnam |
|
|
In April Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made a
two-day visit to Vietnam, with a two-pronged agenda:
to assess the country’s potential as an outsourcing
center for information technology, and to urge
officials to increase their efforts to stem software
piracy. Gates met with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
and other high-ranking government officials, and
spoke at the Hanoi University of Technology. His
visit underscored the potential of Vietnam’s IT
sector, which the government estimates is growing at
a rate of 30% per year. With its labor force
increasing by 1 million people per year, Vietnam
hopes one day to rival India as an IT outsourcing
center. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
·
Cambodia
Survives Abolition of Textile Quotas But Outlook for
US Trade Bill Grim |
|
|
Statistics released by the International Monetary
Fund indicate that Cambodia’s GDP for 2005 was 12%,
a gain over 2004. Since Cambodia’s economic growth
is still heavily dependent on its garment exports,
this suggests that the damage to the Cambodian
textile industry anticipated when quotas were
abolished for WTO members in January 2005 is less
than had been expected. There are several reasons
for this: Cambodia’s relatively low labor costs and
relatively high labor standards, as well as US and
European Union restrictions placed on Chinese
textiles.
However, this optimistic trend is likely to slow
this year as competition for low-priced textiles
increases and oil prices rise. Moreover, the outlook
for continued economic stability in Cambodia, as
well as in Laos and other Asian-Pacific
least-developed countries, is dimmer as the Trade
Act of 2005 – which would lower tariffs for
Asian-Pacific LDC’s similar to benefits granted to
their economic counterparts in Africa, the Caribbean
and Central America – seems to be in stalemate in
Congress. If the Act is not passed by the end of the
year it will lapse and would need to be revived by a
new Congress in 2007. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
·
Peace Corps To Inaugurate First-Ever Program in
Cambodia |
|
|
On March 29 Peace Corps Director Gaddhi Vasquez and
Meng Eang Nay, Deputy Chief of Mission for the
Cambodian Embassy in Washington, announced that
Peace Corps would establish its first program in
Cambodia in early 2007. The first volunteers are
likely to focus on English teaching and health
education. Prior to their arrival, Peace Corps will
establish an office in Phnom Penh and begin training
staff.
Discussions on a possible Peace Corps program are
also in progress with Vietnam, and US observers
believe a program in that country, as well as in
Indonesia, could be launched in 2007. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
·
Hearing on Vietnam Agent Orange Suit Delayed in US
Court |
|
|
For the third time, the Second US Court of Appeals
has set a new time frame for a hearing on the appeal
of the lawsuit brought by the Vietnam Association
for Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) and other
plaintiffs against Dow, Monsanto and other American
manufacturers of the defoliants and herbicides used
during the Vietnam war. The new parameter for a
hearing is between August 5 and December 5 of this
year, but no definite date as been set. Lawyers
familiar with the Federal Court system note that
delays of civil appeals hearings for procedural
reasons are not unusual.
Despite the lagging judicial process, awareness of
the impact of Agent Orange in Vietnam has been
growing in recent months. In March FRD co- sponsored
the first international conference on the social,
economic and psychological impact of Agent Orange,
held in Hanoi. The conference was coordinated by the
Center for Gender, Family and Environment in
Development, a Vietnamese research organization. (Click
here for proceedings of the conference.)
Proceedings from a subsequent VAVA conference of
persons from several countries who believe they are
suffering from the effects of Agent Orange will also
be available on the FRD website.
US Secretary for Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson was
questioned vigorously by the international press on
the US policy toward Vietnamese Agent Orange victims
when he visited Vietnam in April.
FRD has launched an on-line petition to President
Bush urging he announce two practical steps to
address this sensitive bilateral issue during his
November visit to Vietnam. |
|
|
View new Agent Orange
petition. |
|
|
|
