(VOVworld) - European parliament members, economists and business representatives gathered in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss ways to boost EU-Vietnam trade relations.

A conference in Brussels on ways to boost EU-Vietnam trade relations (VNA)

Participants focused on the prospects and potential benefits the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Both sides concluded 2.5 years of negotiations on their FTA in Brussels last August. The European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution ratifying the Vietnam– EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) at a plenary session in Strasbourg, France, last December. The FTA is expected to increase the value of Vietnam’s exports to the EU by 4% annually, and the value of the EU’s exports to Vietnam by more than 3%.

Professor David Camroux of Paris’s Politics University said the EVFTA will help consolidate economic and trade relations between Vietnam and the EU and said Vietnam is no longer a developing country but a new industrialized nation in Asia.