U.S. Vietnam Trade Agreement After a week of questioning Congressional aides, it is now disappointingly clear that because of the delays in resolving U.S. - Vietnam Trade differences that there is too little time remaining on the Congressional calendar for this session for the introduction and passage of NTR for Vietnam this year.  This is because both the House and Senate need to go through committee and floor action to pass NTR.  the consensus from Congressional staff and leadership is that the process could not be completed in the too few remaining session days in July and September.  A formal statement on this is expected soon.  Despite this unfortunate delay in the road toward resolving this issue, a solidly positive vote in favor of the Jackson-Vanik renewal is expected soon.

Statement by President Clinton on Thursday, July 13, 2000

Just a few moments ago, (Trade) Ambassador (Charlene) Barshefsky and (Trade) Minister Vu Khoan signed an agreement between the United States and Vietnam that will dramatically open Vietnam's economy, further integrate it into the international community and increase trade between our two nations.  And so from the bitter past, we plant the seed of a better future.

This is another historic step in the process of normalization, reconciliation and healing between our two nations.  Improvements in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam have depended from the beginning upon progress in determining the fate of Americans who did not return from the war.

In 1994, with the support of the members of Congress standing with me here and others, I lifted the trade embargo on Vietnam in response to its cooperation on the POW/MIA issue.  A year later, I normalized diplomatic relations between our two nations to further this goal.  As further progress was made in 1996, I appointed former Congressman Pete Peterson - himself a former prisoner of war - to be our United States ambassador in Vietnam.

With the indispensable help of key congressional allies, especially Senator John Kerry and Senator John McCain, Senator Bob Kerrey and Senator Chuck Hagel and Senator Chuck Robb; Representative Rick Boucher, Representative (Silvestre) Reyes, who is here, Representative (Donald) Manzullo, Representatives Lane Evans, (jim) Kolbe, (Doug) Bereuter and (Jim) McDermott, this process has worked.

Since 1993, we have undertaken 39 joint recovery operations with Vietnam, and the number 40 is under way as we speak.  Time and again, the Vietnamese people have shared their memories with Americans.  And we, too, have sought to help Vietnam in its own search for answers.

Our nation has also felt a special sense of responsibility to those people in Vietnam whose families were torn apart during and after the war.  In the last few years, we've made tremendous progress in resettling tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees in the United States, closing yet another painful chapter.

And Vietnam has done much to turn its face toward a changing world.  It has worked to open its economy and move into the mainstream of Southeast Asia as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian nations and APEC.  Our trading relations have also grown.  When I took office, our exports to Vietnam totaled just $4 million.  Today, they stand at $291 million.

The agreement we signed today will dramatically open Vietnam's markets on everything from agriculture to industrial goods to telecommunications products, while creating jobs both in Vietnam and in the United States.

With this agreement, Vietnam has agreed to speed its opening to the world; to subject important decisions to the rule of law and the international trading system; to increase the flow of information to its people; by inviting competition in, to accelerate the rise of a free market economy and the private sector with Vietnam itself.  We hope expanded trade will go hand in hand with strength and respect for human rights and labor standards.  For we live in an age where wealth is generated by the free exchange of ideas and stability depends on democratic choices.  By signing this agreement, Vietnam takes an important step in the right direction.

This agreement is one more reminder that former adversaries can come together to find common ground in a way that benefits all their people, to let go of the past and embrace the future, to forgive and to reconcile.