BETTER late than never. President Clinton's lifting of the three-decade-old American trade embargo against Vietnam was long overdue, but nonetheless welcome.
While the embargo may have served its original purpose of encouraging the Vietnamese to account for the more than 2,000 American servicemen still listed as Missing in Action, it has ceased to have any real function other than to block US companies from competing in one of Asia's fastest growing markets. Indeed the move may have come too late for some American businesses. As former Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach said at an end of embargo party in Hanoi: ''In Vietnam, we have a saying. The latecomer buffalo will drink polluted water''.
It was nonetheless a brave political act for a President still plagued by accusations of draft-dodging during the Vietnam war, and whose Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, has only just been cleared of accepting bribes for working to have the embargo ended.
The criticism levelled at Mr Clinton by Vietnam war veterans suggests he may still pay a political price for his decision. It would be a price worth paying.
For the lifting of the embargo is good news, not only for Vietnam and the US, but also for Hong Kong and the rest of Asia. In the short-term, local companies will have to work harder in a market where they have built up a dominant position. The territoryhas already pumped HK$1.2 billion into projects there, an amount second only to Taiwan.
But, in the longer term, the lifting of the embargo will strengthen Hong Kong's chances of remaining a regional hub beyond 1997, with the territory - already well-served by direct flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - well-positioned to serve as a staging post for American businesses as they flood back into Vietnam.