Us Clears Way To Lifting Hanoi Trade Ban
The Age
Friday July 2, 1993
Eighteen years after the last Americans fled Saigon ahead of victorious communist forces, the United States has agreed to end its opposition to Vietnam gaining access to hundreds of millions of dollars of world loan funds.
The decision by the US President, Mr Clinton, clears the way for the lifting of a broad US trade embargo imposed on Hanoi in 1964 and extended to all of Vietnam after 1975.
The embargo has been seen in Asia as a punishment for Vietnam winning the war. It has effectively isolated Vietnam politically and economically for almost 20 years.
Australian trade officials say Australian companies are well placed to benefit from the flow of international bank loans to Hanoi that will result from the decision. ``There will be quite a number of large infrastructure projects for which our companies will be attractive bidders," said Mr John Allgrove, the executive general manager of Austrade in South-East Asia.
US officials said yesterday that Mr Clinton would today drop US opposition to a request by Vietnam to refinance debts of $US140million with the International Monetary Fund.
France and Japan want to lend Vietnam the $140million to pay off the old Saigon regime's debts, enabling Hanoi to receive new loans to help its market-orientated reforms.
The ending of opposition to IMF funding will put the Clinton administration under pressure from US companies to quickly lift the embargo which has locked them out of a market with high growth potential.
The lifting of bans on international loans will open contracts for large infrastructure projects such as roads, airports, ports and power facilities.
The embargo enabled some Australian companies to establish a presence in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) while US and Japanese companies were shut out.
US officials said earlier this week that any decision to drop opposition to world loans would be in appreciation of Hanoi's cooperation in the search for Americans missing since the Vietnam war.
``There is no change in our position that progress in our relationship with Vietnam depends upon progress in full disclosure on MIAs and POWs," said White House spokeswoman, Ms Dee Dee Myers.
Vietnam remains a sensitive issue in the US. Some US veterans' organisations and family groups claim that Hanoi is still withholding information about more than 2200 Americans officially unaccounted for.
There are still differences within the Clinton administration on whether Vietnam is doing enough on the MIA (missing in action) issue, analysts in Washington said.
Mr Clinton must decide before 14 September whether to issue an executive order maintaining the trade embargo.
Vietnamese officials in Hanoi welcomed the imminent US announcement.
© 1993 The Age