Global Daily Tax News, EFTA, Vietnam Conclude Free Trade Agreement, (Jul 6, 2026)

The European Free Trade Association states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland – and Vietnam concluded a new comprehensive free trade agreement on July 2, 2026.

Negotiations on the FTA were relaunched starting in September 2025 and were completed after five rounds.

EFTA said, "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 Vietnam by eliminating or reducing customs duties, facilitating trade, and promoting sustainable development."

In 2025, bilateral trade between EFTA and Vietnam amounted to EUR4.8b and the trade surplus in favor of Vietnam was EUR2.5bn.

According to EFTA, upon entry into force of the FTA, the EFTA states will maintain the elimination of all customs duties on imports of industrial products, as well as fish and other marine products, originating in Vietnam. Vietnam will eliminate customs duties on the vast majority of industrial and seafood products originating in and exported from the EFTA states within a maximum of 11 years from entry into force of the agreement.

Important export products of the EFTA states, such as cheese, coffee, chocolate, infant food, and food supplements, will receive duty-free market access to the Vietnamese market within a maximum of 16 years after entry into force. EFTA said concessions offered to Vietnam in respect of agricultural products are comparable to those granted to other recent EFTA free trade partners.