Assessing Vietnam’s regulations on plastic waste import in the light of the compliance with the WTO and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement

The global plastic pollution and China’s plastic waste import ban have put Vietnam at risk of being “one of the global hazardous waste woes”. Therefore, it is necessary for Vietnam to take all necessary measures to ban the free import of plastic waste. The question is whether this import barrier breaches any international treaties that Vietnam has signed. This paper answers this question by reviewing the current commitments of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The paper also makes some suggestions to strengthen Vietnam’s current regulations to harmonize the issues between trade activities and protecting the environment, especially during the country’s integration process.