'Shocking': US tariffs worse than feared for Vietnamese exporters

Vietnamese garment factory worker Cao Thi Dieu (right) says she can't eat or sleep well because she is worried about losing her job. - AFP

HO CHI MINH CITY: At a garment factory in Ho Chi Minh City that exports T-shirts and underwear to the United States, staff were alarmed by "shocking" trade tariffs imposed on Vietnam that could severely impact their business.

A manufacturing powerhouse that counted the United States as its biggest market last year, the South-East Asian nation was hammered with a thumping 46 per cent tariff in President Donald Trump's global trade blitz.