President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that his administration had finalised a trade agreement with Vietnam that would impose a minimum tariff of 20 percent while requiring the country to open its markets further to American goods.
He stated that the deal was concluded just days before his self-imposed July 9 deadline, after which steeper tariffs on US trade partners were scheduled to take effect if no agreements were reached.
Reports indicated that while shares in apparel and sports equipment companies with strong operations in Vietnam initially rose following news of the deal, they later dropped sharply once details of the agreement emerged, including the higher-than-anticipated tariff rates.
Under the proposed terms, prices for Vietnamese-made shoes and clothing exported to the US are expected to rise significantly. However, analysts noted that Vietnam had managed to avoid the harsher 46 percent tariff Trump had threatened back in April.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the Highly Respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He said that under the “Great Deal of Cooperation,” imports of Vietnamese goods will face a 20 percent US tariff, while goods that pass through Vietnam to circumvent steeper trade barriers — so-called “transshipping” — will see a 40 percent tariff.
Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro has called Vietnam a “colony of China,” saying that one third of Vietnamese products are in fact relabeled Chinese goods.
Trump said that “in return, Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade,” he said.
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“In other words, they will ‘OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,’ meaning that we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff.”
President Trump expressed confidence that American-made SUVs, which he described as highly successful domestically, would be a valuable addition to Vietnam’s range of imported products.
In an official statement, the Vietnamese government confirmed that negotiators from both countries had reached a consensus aimed at resolving concerns over reciprocal tariffs, although no specific tariff figures were disclosed.
According to the statement, Trump had assured Vietnam that the United States would considerably reduce taxes on many of its export goods while continuing collaborative efforts to address trade-related challenges, particularly in sectors prioritised by both nations.
The announcement came just a week before Washington’s planned reintroduction of steep tariffs targeting multiple economies, including Japan and the European Union, as several countries rushed to secure last-minute agreements to shield themselves from the looming trade measures.