Receiving Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Trade Representative Michael Froman, President Sang congratulated them on their appointments to the second-term Obama administration.

He agreed on the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement for the regional economic linkage as well as for the economic development of each country.

TPP must be a balanced agreement for development goals in regard to the diversity of members’ development levels, he said, stressing that economics, trade and investment have been the centre and driving force of bilateral ties.

He suggested the US side open the door for Vietnamese goods and avoid imposing trade barriers on imports from Viet Nam in order to ensure the legitimate interests of Vietnamese businesses and workers as well as the benefits of US consumers.

The Vietnamese President stated that anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases on tra and basa fish and shrimp have negatively affected millions of Vietnamese farmers, both economically and socially, causing difficulties for job generation for farmers and poverty reduction efforts in rural areas.

President Sang proposed that the US add Viet Nam to the list of developing countries and provide technical assistance for the country to improve its capacity of implementing commitments, focusing on high-quality human resources training.

He also asked the US to soon recognise Viet Nam as a market economy. The two countries should discuss the building of a framework agreement on agricultural cooperation in an early date, he said.

At the meetings, the US senior officials noted that the two countries see great opportunities to strongly develop their ties in the time to come. They pledged to promote multi-faceted cooperation with Viet Nam , especially in economics, trade and investment.

Both Pritzker and Froman emphasised the US Government’s determination, together with other members, to speed up negotiations to soon finalise the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. They also applauded the progress of the recent negotiation round between the two countries in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Tom Vilsack held that there are rooms for the two countries to further their agricultural cooperation and affirmed to increase programmes to support Viet Nam in capacity building and training in the field.

The US senior officials acknowledged President Sang’s proposals and vowed that in the future, the two countries’ ministries and agencies will work closely and discuss specific and suitable measures to implement agreements reached between the two countries in related areas.