European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement – Driving factor to improve the across-borders trading administrative procedure?

This study focuses on the examination of the status of the administrative procedures in Vietnam in the context of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and its implications for simplifying and modernizing these procedures to foster economic growth. The importance of this research lies in its exploration of the under-investigated area of the correlation between free trade agreements and administrative procedures, offering insights into how international agreements like EVFTA with requirement about upgrade administrative procedure can serve as instruments to boost economic development. The research investigates whether the commitment to simplifying and modernizing cross-border trading procedures, as stipulated by the EVFTA, has been effectively implemented. Additionally, it analyzes the trade value response resulting from these administrative adjustments and proposes policy implications to further promote the EVFTA. These questions are tackled through a multi-methodological approach, incorporating document analysis, interviews, and ethnography observations, to investigate the effects of EVFTA on cross-border administrative trading procedures and regulatory compliance in Vietnam. The study's main findings highlight that Vietnam made domestic regulatory adjustments in anticipation of EVFTA, indicating a proactive approach to compliance. The smooth implementation of EVFTA has positively impacted the efficiency of cross-border trading, contributing to a significant increase in bilateral trade volumes, encouraging a trade surplus for Vietnam, and proving that EVFTA is a successful case study of FTA implementation. However, the study also points out there still several management inadequacies such as non-transparent fee and procedure currently occur in cross border procedures. Additionally, the research also raising concern on the environmental and human justice which will negative effect on the success of free trade agreement implementation.