Although Vietnam has been an official member of the WTO since 2007, non-tariff measures such as Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in WTO agreements are unfamiliar to many corporate and governmental entities. Given that the plastics and agricultural industries are fast-emerging markets of particular importance to Vietnam's economy, they were chosen as the focus of our study. It was determined that education on international agreements, looking to other countries' experience for transferable "best practices," and identifying common trends and pressures would be avenues towards improving domestic policy to facilitate compliance with importing country TBT and SPS regulations. Two other Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia and Thailand, were selected for our policy education study. The study results suggest that the achievements of Malaysia and Thailand are attributable to well-engineered government policy, as well as corporate compliance with TBT and SPS measures in both countries.
Global Trade and Customs Journal