Re-Regulation in the Post-WTO Period? A Case Study of Vietnam's Food Retailing Sector

Academic interest on domestic regulatory (and re-regulatory) impacts of retail foreign direct investment remains surprisingly under-researched, despite high-profile campaigns, particularly in Southeast Asia, to rein in the expansion of retail transnational corporations. This paper focuses on the trends of re-regulation of foreign retailers, particularly in the food sector, in Vietnam before and after the accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007. The findings reveal a complex layering of regulation, some of it a holdover from the pre-2007 period and some of it occurring since WTO accession, in the form of the controversial Economic Needs Test.