Vietnam may not enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) this December as it hopes, since bilateral negotiations with some partners, including the United States, could not be completed until next June, said Vietnamese Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu.

Tu, who is also head of the Vietnamese negotiation team, has recently told the National Assembly that the earliest timeline for Vietnam to compete all procedures to access the WTO is May or July 2006 instead of December this year, local newspaper Saigon Times Daily reported Friday.

Talks with the United States, one of the important partners, have been stalled, making it improbable to realize its entry bid, he said, adding that the 4th negotiation round with the foreign country, scheduled for July, did not happen, and the two sides have yet to reconfirm the negotiating date.

In an interview with the central television last week, Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen said the United States "obviously had problem" in pushing its negotiation with Vietnam.

However, the US Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, still confirmed that the United States wants Vietnam to become a WTO member as soon as possible, and the both sides have been working hard to resolve remaining issues.

"Unlike Vietnam's other major trading partners, we discuss multilateral and bilateral issues simultaneously during negotiations, so our bilateral talks take longer than those of other countries," he said.

Some key issues, including market access in the finance, telecommunications and distribution sectors, remain unsolved, he said, noting: "We will be unable to reach an agreement until those differences are resolved."

To date, Vietnam has concluded WTO bilateral negotiations with 20 partners, including the European Union, China, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, the report said.

Source: Xinhua