Vietnam Should Ensure The Establishment And Participation Of Trade Unions In Safeguarding Their Rights.

Camilla Mellander, the Swedish ambassador to Vietnam, pointed out that the recently signed Vietnam EU free trade agreement (EVFTA) contains chapters on Trade and sustainable development, which can further strengthen the relationship between the EU and Vietnam. However, the Swedish government believes that opening trade and promoting exports should also be accompanied by high ethical standards, and consumers have paid more attention to the impact of the products purchased on the environment and workers in the production process. The EU and Vietnam must ensure that trade will not be at the expense of the environment or the interests of the people. So just as Vietnam? The government's commitment to EVFTA, enterprises in Vietnam should be aware of the importance of fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR). Such consumer awareness is urging Vietnam and other countries to comply with international CSR standards.

The representative of Vietnam chamber of Commerce and industry (VCCI) said at the meeting that EVFTA would bring growth opportunities to Vietnamese enterprises. For example, when EVFTA came into force in 2018, it was estimated that Vietnam's GDP would grow by 15%, while its export to the EU would increase by 35%. However, TPP and EVFTA both set high labor standards, and emphasized the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Therefore, how to comply with EVFTA's international CSR standard has become an inevitable challenge for Vietnam.

Chang Hee Lee, the representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Vietnam, further calls EVFTA and TPP Reaffirming affirming the four basic labour standards of the ILO Declaration, namely, (1) freedom of association and collective bargaining; (2) free choice of employment and prohibition of forced labour; (3) prohibition of forced labour and child labour; and (4) non discriminatory employment and professional equality. To fully enjoy TPP and others FTA The interests of Vietnam should be extensively and seriously addressed in its business environment, legal system and system, and more important labour reform, especially its industrial relations system, must be launched. The key point of the TPP labour code is that Vietnam should fully respect the freedom of assembly and association. This is also the most difficult challenge for Vietnam to deal with labour issues.

Officials from the Ministry of labour in Vietnam responded that the Vietnamese and other TPP Member States should respect and ensure the right of workers to establish and participate in the labour representative organizations in any enterprise when giving them the power to establish representative organizations (i.e. trade unions). At present, all Vietnamese trade unions must be one of the Vietnamese Labor Federation of trade unions (VGCL) (according to VGCL: Vietnam's only National Federation of trade unions), but according to the TPP regulation, workers must enjoy the freedom to establish or join any trade union organization, which is a major change for Vietnamese workers, even the government or employers. But international experience and global research have clearly pointed out that effective industrial relations can create benefits for stakeholders. Vietnam should take advantage of TPP to transform its outdated industrial relationship into an effective and modern system so as to better serve enterprises, labor and society.