Trump announces a US trade deal with Vietnam
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Trump announces a US trade deal with Vietnam
Vietnam is the sixth-top source of goods the US imported last year, shipping $137 billion worth of goods. Tariffs on Vietnam were among the highest he announced. The White House has yet to publish any material laying out the details of the deal.Shares of companies that have become reliant on Vietnam, including Nike, jumped immediately after the deal was announced.. Vietnam’s state-run news outlet, Việt Nam News, reported that. General Secretary Tô Lâm and Trump spoke on the phone Wednesday to patch up the terms of the. deal, which it referred to as a framework. The deal comes ahead of a self-imposed July 9 deadline for the US to reach a trade deal with other countries, or the tariffs will go back into effect.. The US will charge a 20% tariff for Vietnamese exports into America, and a 40% tariff. for “transshipping” tariff for ‘other countries’ exported by Vietnam to us.
Against a ticking clock, President Donald Trump said Wednesday the United States has reached a trade agreement with Vietnam, pulling off the administration’s third significant deal ahead of a self-imposed July 9 deadline.
Still, the state of global trade largely remains in flux.
“I just made a Trade Deal with Vietnam,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
In a subsequent post announcing more details, Trump said the United States will charge a 20% tariff for Vietnamese exports into America, and a 40% tariff for “transshipping.” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a post on X Wednesday afternoon the “transshipping” tariff means “if another country sells their content through products exported by Vietnam to us — they’ll get hit with a 40% tariff.”
The 20% tariff is double the current minimum tariff rate the US is charging on goods from Vietnam and virtually every other country.
“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 added. “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.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if the deal was finalized or whether Vietnam had agreed to what Trump announced. Vietnam’s state-run news outlet, Việt Nam News, reported that General Secretary Tô Lâm and Trump spoke on the phone Wednesday to patch up the terms of the deal, which it referred to as a framework. Vietnam’s US embassy did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
On the call, “Lâm proposed that the US soon recognize Việt Nam as a market economy and lift export restrictions on certain high-tech products,” the outlet reported.
For months, Trump and his administration have been saying countries were lining up to make trade deals with the United States. But, ahead of July 9, when the 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs ends and levies as high as 50% could go into effect, it’s been mostly crickets. Restoring those historic tariffs risks rocking financial markets and businesses’ plans alike.
Tariff rates on Vietnamese goods shipped to the US were set to rise to a minimum of 46% if the rates Trump announced in April held. Tariffs on Vietnam were among the highest he announced.
The White House has yet to publish any material laying out the details of the deal Trump announced Wednesday morning.
“We’re still putting together the press release,” US Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender told CNBC Wednesday afternoon. He said that would “probably” come out by the end of the trading day Wednesday, which generally refers to 4 p.m. ET. Faulkender didn’t answer whether the 20% tariff would come on top of the already-in-effect 10% tariff on goods from Vietnam or whether 20% would be the new level.
Imports from Vietnam skyrocketed as tariffs on China grew
Vietnam was the sixth-top source of goods the US imported last year, shipping $137 billion worth of goods. That’s more than double the value of goods exported to the US five years prior, according to US Commerce Department data.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit with Vietnam, equal to the value of goods the US exports there minus imports, has risen in tandem. Last year, it was $123 billion, the third-largest trade deficit the US had with any country. Back in 2019 it was $56 billion, the fifth-largest trade deficit with another country.
Trump has taken particular issue with countries that run large and persistent trade deficits with the US, claiming they’re indicative of unfair trade practices. That helps explain why he sought to impose one of the highest “reciprocal” tariff rates on the country.
Vietnam has benefited from the higher tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods during his first term that former President Joe Biden largely kept in place. Those tariffs caused more companies to move their production to Vietnam, where tariff rates were lower.
Among the top imports from there are computers and electronics, apparel and accessories and furniture. While China remains the top imported sources of these goods, Vietnam has quickly been catching up.
Shares of companies that have become reliant on Vietnam, including Nike (NKE), Lululemon (LULU) and Columbia Sportswear (COLM), all jumped higher immediately after Trump announced the deal. Nike and Columbia Sportswear held on to their gains, and were up 4.2% and 1.3%, respectively, around 3 p.m. ET. Shares of Lululemon flipped between positive and negative territory Wednesday, but were up 0.7%. VF Corporation (VFC), which owns The North Face and Vans, was up 1.5%.
The S&P 500 was up 0.38% by mid-afternoon, hitting a new intraday record, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.82%. The blue-chip Dow was down 0.1% but pared earlier losses after Trump’s post.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Trump says he will put 20% tariff on Vietnam’s exports
The U.S. will place a lower-than-promised 20% tariff on many Vietnamese exports, Donald Trump said on Wednesday. The announcement comes just days before a July 9 deadline before he ramps up tariffs on most imports. The Vietnamese government did not confirm the specific tariff levels in a statement celebrating what it described as an agreement on a joint statement about a trade framework. It was not clear which products Trump’s 20% tariffs would apply to, or whether some would qualify for lower or higher total duties. The U. S. is Vietnam’s largest export market and the two countries’ growing economic, diplomatic and military ties are a hedge against Washington’s biggest strategic rival, China. Since 2018, Vietnam’s exports are up nearly threefold from less than $50 billion that year to about $137 billion in 2024, Census Bureau data shows. U.s. exports to Vietnam are up only about 30% in that time – to just over $13 billion last year fromLess than $10 billion in 2018.
Summary
Companies US would set rates on many Vietnamese exports at 20%
Higher tariffs were due to take effect next week without deal
US cars may get preferential access to Vietnam’s market
WASHINGTON/HANOI, July 2 (Reuters) – The United States will place a lower-than-promised 20% tariff on many Vietnamese exports, Donald Trump said on Wednesday, cooling tensions with its tenth-biggest trading partner days before the U.S. president could raise levies on most imports.
Vietnamese goods would face a 20% tariff and trans-shipments from third countries through Vietnam will face a 40% levy, he said. Vietnam could import U.S. products with a zero percent tariff, he added.
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“It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” Trump said on Truth Social after speaking with Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam.
Trump’s announcement comes just days before a July 9 deadline before he ramps up tariffs on most imports, one of the Republican’s signature economic policies.
Under that plan, announced in April, U.S. importers of Vietnamese goods would have had to pay a 46% tariff.
Details were scant. It was not clear which products Trump’s 20% tariff would apply to, or whether some would qualify for lower or higher total duties.
Also left to later discussion was how the new trans-shipment provision, aimed at products largely made in China and then labeled “Made in Vietnam,” would be implemented and enforced.
The Vietnamese government did not confirm the specific tariff levels in a statement celebrating what it described as an agreement on a joint statement about a trade framework.
Vietnam would commit to “providing preferential market access for U.S. goods, including large-engine cars,” the government in Hanoi said.
A deal between the two countries would be a political boost for Trump, whose team has struggled to quickly close deals with Washington’s biggest trading partners ahead of the deadline.
While the administration has teased a forthcoming deal with India , truces reached earlier with Britain and China were limited in scope. Talks with Japan , the United States’ sixth-largest trading partner and closest ally in Asia, appeared to hit road blocks.
The U.S. is Vietnam’s largest export market and the two countries’ growing economic, diplomatic and military ties are a hedge against Washington’s biggest strategic rival, China. Vietnam has worked to retain close relations with both superpowers.
Lam also asked Trump for the U.S. to recognize Vietnam as a market economy and remove restrictions on the exports of high-tech products to the country, Vietnam said. Those changes have long been sought by Hanoi.
The White House and the Vietnamese trade ministry did not respond to requests for additional comment.
GROWING TRADE TIES
Since Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese goods in his 2017-2021 term, U.S. trade with Vietnam has exploded, though almost all of it in the form of goods to the United States from Vietnam as importers sought workarounds for the China levies.
Since 2018, Vietnam’s exports are up nearly threefold from less than $50 billion that year to about $137 billion in 2024, Census Bureau data shows. U.S. exports to Vietnam are up only about 30% in that time – to just over $13 billion last year from less than $10 billion in 2018.
“‘Transshipping’ is a vague and often politicized term in trade enforcement,” said Dan Martin, business adviser at Dezan Shira & Associates, on LinkedIn. “How it’s defined and how it’s applied in practice will shape the future of US-Vietnam trade relations.”
Trump announced a wave of tariffs for countries around the world on April 2, before pausing the implementation of most duties until July 9. More than a dozen countries are actively negotiating with the Trump administration to avoid a steep spike in tariffs on their exports.
Britain accepted a 10% U.S. tariff on many goods, including autos , in exchange for special access for aircraft engines and British beef.
Like the agreement struck with Britain in May, the one with Vietnam resembles a framework rather than a finalized trade pact.
China and the United States also came to a truce in a tit-for-tat tariff battle in which Beijing restored American access to some rare-earth minerals, but the two sides left most of their disagreements to later negotiations.
“Had Trump stuck with 46 percent, much higher than the current tariff on China, Vietnam feared it would be disadvantaged by its competitors especially in Southeast Asia,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate with the Southeast Asia program at CSIS, a think tank.
“This likely would have dented Vietnam’s trust in the U.S. and it might have toned down some of its security cooperation with Washington.”
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, David Lawder and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Khanh Vu, Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi; and Ryan Patrick Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis
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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/02/business/trade-deal-vietnam-trump