Trade and Sustainable Development in Vietnam

The document examines how Vietnam's transition to an open economy and its integration into global trade frameworks (WTO, ASEAN, APEC) affect its environment. It identifies scale, structural, technological, and product effects as primary drivers of environmental change. The paper emphasizes the need for a coordinated policy framework to prevent Vietnam from becoming a 'pollution haven' and discusses the adoption of ISO 14001 and eco-labeling to overcome technical barriers to trade. Case studies on coffee exports and the Cau Tre Enterprise illustrate the practical challenges of meeting international hygiene and environmental standards.

• Trade liberalization in Vietnam creates 'scale effects' where increased economic activity leads to higher pollutant quantities; for example, industrial production grew by 65% between 1990 and 1994, and toxic wastes are estimated to increase by a factor of 3.8 between 2000 and 2010.
• The structural shift in Vietnam's economy toward the industrial sector is projected to maintain a high concentration of toxic pollution in the chemical and fertilizer sector, which is estimated to account for 67.6% of toxic pollutants by 2010.
• Vietnam faces the risk of 'eco-dumping' or a 'race to the bottom' where competition leads to the import of old, inefficient, and obsolete machinery to cut costs.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) poses a risk of making Vietnam a 'pollution haven,' particularly 'resource seeking' FDI in the oil, mining, and forestry sectors, which is most likely to cause environmental damage.
• Vietnam's agricultural export success, particularly in rice, has relied on massive increases in chemical fertilizers, leading to diminishing returns in production per unit of fertilizer and potential water pollution.
• International trade creates 'product effects' where developed countries use environmental standards and eco-labeling as Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), pressuring Vietnamese producers to adopt cleaner production methods.
• The application of ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is viewed as a tool to improve international competitiveness and access to finance, although high costs and a lack of expertise pose challenges for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
• Vietnam's coffee industry has grown rapidly to rank 3rd globally in export volume by the 1997/98 crop, but faces quality issues due to poor drying practices and the risk of Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination.
• The Cau Tre Export Processing Enterprise demonstrates that meeting EU hygiene and quality standards allows for market expansion, though it requires substantial investment in wastewater treatment and the replacement of CFC refrigerants with NH3.
• Vietnam's current trade management policies lack specific environmental provisions, with many chemical substances and agricultural products having very low or zero tariffs, leaving the country open to environment-unfriendly products.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (1999). Trade and Sustainable Development in Vietnam. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/viet_eng.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Trade and Sustainable Development in Vietnam. 1999. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/viet_eng.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Trade and Sustainable Development in Vietnam |date=1999 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/viet_eng.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment1999trade, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Trade and Sustainable Development in Vietnam}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {1999}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/viet_eng.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }