The U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council is pleased to have worked with the Government of Vietnam on organizing the successful visit to Vietnam of Rufus Yerxa, Deputy Director General of the WTO, on April 5-8, 2004.  While in Hanoi, Mr. Yerxa worked with senior Government of Vietnam officials -- including Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen, Vice Trade Minister Luong Van Tu, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Van Bang, Vice Chair of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee Nguyen Ngoc Tran -- as well as the government's interministerial negotiating team on Vietnam's WTO accession.  USVTC also helped to arrange Yerxa's speech to the Hanoi chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce, a luncheon meeting with representatives of the foreign diplomatic community and multilateral organizations, and briefing of the foreign and local press.

It is hoped that Mr. Yerxa's visit will help accelerate Vietnam's WTO accession.  Vietnam last met with the WTO Working Party in December 2003 and hopes to conduct the next round of WTO accession negotiations later this Spring with new materials beginning to go to WTO this past week.