Ambiguous evidence for the EU’s ‘successful’ normative trade policy – the case of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)

The EU’s Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters are a prime example of the EU’s normative trade power. It has been hypothesized that EU Member States’ colonial pasts have challenged the EU’s normative power trade agenda in formerly colonized countries. In this article, I show that this is not the case in Vietnam. Against all expectations that the TSD chapter in the EU-Vietnam trade deal would provoke anti-colonial resentments, no discussions on the TSD chapter took place in Vietnamese governmental media. Instead, one finds silences on this matter, despite the fact that Vietnam modified its labour code to meet TSD chapter standards. In order to understand the surprising non-depiction of TSD chapters in state media, we must delve into the identity sphere. In this sphere it becomes apparent that EVFTA is firmly embedded in Vietnam’s alleged national identity. I display that a controlled framing of EUropean and Vietnamese trade-identities by Vietnamese political elites contributes to the positive depiction of EVFTA; this avoided the emergence of counter-narratives and protests. This positive portrayal includes the embedment of the EVFTA in the four cornerstones of Vietnam’s national narrative on a harmonious century-long international integration policy, infused with strong developmental thinking introduced during French colonialism. I conclude that in the case of the EVFTA, the EU’s normative trade agenda can be viewed as successful, at least on paper.