U.S. assures Vietnam it will soon normalize trade ties

The United States assured Vietnam Wednesday that it would quickly normalize trade ties, according to an AFP report.

The assurance came days after U.S. Congress failed to pass such a bill in time for President George W. Bush's arrival in Hanoi for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

"It is unfortunate that it could not have been done before the president arrived, but I think the message for the Vietnamese people will be, 'this is going to get done,'" Bush's national security advisor Steve Hadley told reporters on Air Force One taking the president to Asia.

The White House believed that there were majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to back "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) to Vietnam, Hadley said.

On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to approve the bill granting PNTR status to Vietnam. The proposal gained 228 in favor, 32 short of a required two-thirds majority.

Bush left the White House on Tuesday night, planning to stop briefly in Moscow and then in Singapore before arriving in Hanoi on Friday for a state visit and an APEC summit.

Source: Xinhua