Clinton Hails Trade Accord

As historic Middle East foes tried to make peace at Camp David, President Clinton Thursday announced that the U.S. had found common ground with one of its former enemies by signing a historic trade deal with Vietnam.

The market-opening agreement, signed earlier Thursday by U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Vietnam's Trade Minister Vu Khoan after four years of negotiations, will reduce tariffs on goods and services, protect intellectual property and improve investment relations.

It will also clear the way for Hanoi to join the World Trade Organization.

Mr. Clinton made reference to the Middle East peace talks as he announced the U.S.-Vietnam pact.

"This day is encouraging to me," said the president, adding that he would mention the pact to the players at Camp David and ask them "to follow suit."

Mr. Clinton said the deal woud not have occurred without help from Congressional allies, like Vietnam veteran Sen. John Kerry, D.-Mass., and former Vietnam prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz.

The agreement could be one of the most important economic milestones for Vietnam since it embarked on market-oriented reforms in the late 1980s, and could boost Hanoi's bid to join the Geneva-based World Trade Organization. Mr. Clinton said the deal would "dramatically open Vietnamese markets, creating jobs both in Vietnam and the United States."

It would also mark a major step toward completing the normalization process that began five years ago on July 11, 1995, when Mr. Clinton extended diplomatic ties to Vietnam.

The warming relations followed progress on the recovery of remains of U.S. troops who died in the war. Since 1993, Mr. Clinton said, the two nations have conducted 39 joint recovery efforts in Vietnam, with the 40th underway right now.

But some remain cool to the idea of a deal between the U.S. and a communist country. One Vietnamese immigrant told CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan, "I don't want to trade. In my country there is no freedom. They live under Communist control."

There is also resistance from labor unions who say the deal will take away manufacturing jobs.

Supporters of the deal counter that it will foster change in the former French colony turned communist state.

McCain, who had encouraged Hanoi to sign the deal, said, "I think it will put them down the road to a freer and open society, although they have a long way to go."

"Vietnam has done much to turn its face toward a changing world," the president said. "We hope expanded trade will go hand in hand with strengthening respect for human rights."

In terms of commerce, the trade pact would mean far more for Vietnam than for the United States. With Congress' approval, Hanoi would win Washington's coveted normal trade relations (NTR) status.

According to a recent World Bank report, the agreement could more than double Vietnam's exports to the United States to $768 million from $338 million in 1996.

It could also boost foreign investment in Vietnam, which has fallen to around $500 million a year from peaks of $2.8 billion in 1996 and 1997 when Hanoi was viewed as Asia's next dynamic tiger economy.

The president said over the course of his term, U.S. trade with Vietnam's 77 million people has grown from a mere $4 million o $291 million a year.