Vietnam and US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance the safety of food, feed, drug and medical devices traded between the two nations.

The plan is the product of discussions between US secretary of health and human services, Mike Leavitt and senior Vietnamese officials in Hanoi, and it exemplifies the new import - safety strategy adopted by the US government on November 2007. The new strategy calls for working with trading partners to help ensure they build quality into every step of a product’s lifecycle.

The MOU calls for cooperation in information sharing, joint training and workshop, best practices in clinical trials, and seafood safety.

The agreement takes effect immediately, and has an initial life of three years, and is subject to revision and renewal, contingent upon the approval of both nations.

The US and Vietnam have a strong and growing trade relationship that has greatly accelerated recent years. Since signing of the US – Vietnam bilateral trade agreement in 2001, commerce between the two nations has increase eight – fold, fuelled, in part, by the agriculture and aquaculture sectors. Two way trades exceeded US$ 12.5 billion in 2007, according to the Foreign - Trade Division of the Census Bureau within the US Department of Commerce.

(Asia Pacific Food Industry – August 2008)