EFTA and Viet Nam sign Free Trade Agreement

The FTA was signed on behalf of the EFTA States by Brigitte Haas, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein; Guy Parmelin, President of the Swiss Confederation and Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research of Switzerland; Astrid Bergmål, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway; and Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland. Lê Mạnh Hùng, Minister of Industry and Trade, signed the agreement on behalf of Viet Nam. 

The signing ceremony was attended by Tô Lâm, General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Viet Nam. 

The FTA is a comprehensive and modern agreement that covers numerous areas, including trade in goods, trade in services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, investment, intellectual property rights, trade remedies, government procurement, trade and sustainable development, small and medium-sized enterprises, and cooperation and capacity building. The agreement aims to enhance trade relations between the EFTA States and Viet Nam by eliminating or reducing customs duties, facilitating trade, and promoting sustainable development. 

Over the past decade, trade between the EFTA States and Viet Nam has grown steadily. In 2025, bilateral trade between EFTA and Viet Nam amounted to EUR 4.8 billion and the trade surplus in favour of Viet Nam reached EUR 2.5 billion, up from EUR 0.5 billion a decade earlier (noting that the Swiss figures exclude trade in gold). Electrical machinery, fish, pharmaceutical products and mechanical machinery were the EFTA States’ top exports to Viet Nam in 2025, while electrical machinery, footwear and apparel, and mechanical machinery were the top imports. These import categories recorded particularly strong growth over the last ten years, with annual average growth rates exceeding 10% in all cases. Among EFTA exports, electrical machinery and seafood products recorded similarly strong growth performances over the same period.

Chapter-by-Chapter Factsheet

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EFTA-Viet Nam