Shoes for export are seen at a shoe factory in Hanoi, Vietnam December 29, 2020. - Reuters
NEW YORK: Vietnam’s top trade official Nguyen Hong Dien, looking to protect the country from possible Trump tariffs, told US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer his country is developing measures to ensure "sustainable” economic relations between the two countries.
Dien, in a Washington meeting Thursday (March 13), told Greer Vietnam is implementing measures to create "sustainable economic, trade and investment relations” with the US, according to a statement on the Minister of Industry and Trade’s website. The minister also reiterated Vietnam’s request to be recognised as a market economy, which would help its companies’ exports to America.
Vietnam needs to have stronger solutions to open up its market and improve the trade balance between the two countries, Greer told Dien, according to the statement.
The US ran a US$123.5 billion trade deficit with Vietnam in 2024, according to the Office of the USTR, drawing attention to the country as Trump’s America First agenda relies on tariffs as part of a strategy to rectify what it sees as unfair trade policies.
The trade deficit is the third highest gap for the US, behind China and Mexico. Vietnam overtook Japan as China’s third-largest export destination for the first time in 2024, putting the country at the forefront of the economic conflict between the two superpowers. - Bloomberg
