HANOI: Vietnam will hold its first round of negotiations with the United States on bilateral trade on Wednesday (May 7), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (pic) announced Monday at the 9th session of the 15th-tenure National Assembly.
In the report on the socio-economic situation in the early months of 2025, Chinh noted that since the beginning of the year, the global situation had witnessed highly complex and unpredictable developments.
In particular, the United States’ unexpected announcement of broad-based, high reciprocal tariffs had adversely affected global economic growth, severely threatened supply chains, and disrupted the flow of international trade and investment.
Traditional and non-traditional security challenges had also grown increasingly acute and difficult to manage.
On April 2, the US officially announced a blanket 10 per cent tariff policy on all countries and set very high reciprocal tariffs (Vietnam was subjected to a 46 per cent reciprocal tariff). One week later, the US announced a 90-day suspension of its reciprocal tariff plan, except for China.
In this context, according to the Government leader, Vietnam has responded calmly and proactively, implementing timely and flexible measures that have yielded some initial positive results.
Vietnam is among six countries – the United Kingdom, India, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia – that the US has given higher priority in negotiations, according to the Vietnamese leader.
Chinh emphasised that the Government had been closely directing the negotiating team and relevant ministries and agencies to monitor developments, swiftly finalise proposals, and prepare for negotiations with the US in the spirit of “harmonised interests, shared risks.
As the first leader to have called US President Donald Trump right after the reciprocal tariffs were announced, General Secretary To Lam has said Vietnam is ready to cut all tariffs against US imports into Vietnam to zero, while urging the US side to do the same for Vietnamese goods into the US. - Vietnam News/ANN
