WASHINGTON, July 15 — United States (US) President Donald Trump has said that a trade agreement with Vietnam was nearly complete.
He told the press at Joint Base Andrews near Washington on Tuesday that he could release details of the Vietnam trade agreement, but did not think it was necessary.
Earlier this month, Trump announced that he had struck a preliminary trade deal with the Communist country, which would cut planned US tariffs on imports from Vietnam to 20 per cent from the 46 per cent level he had threatened in April.
At the time, Trump also said goods that Washington deemed to be illegally transshipped through Vietnam to other countries would be subject to a 40 per cent levy.
The agreement has not been finalised, and details have not been released, leaving questions over how Washington will define an illegal transhipment and how much value Vietnam must add to imported products to avoid the 40 per cent tariff. It also remains unclear which products would fall under Trump's 20 per cent tariff.
Vietnam has not confirmed the specific tariff rates, instead celebrating what it described as an agreement in a joint statement regarding a trade framework.
When asked if he planned to release details of the trade pact with Vietnam, he told reporters, "Well, I might. I do not think it matters how much you release of the deal. We have a Vietnam deal, and I would say that that deal is being pretty well set."
Vietnam has nearly tripled its exports to the US since the start of the US-China trade war in 2018, when the first Trump administration imposed wide-ranging tariffs on China, prompting some manufacturers to relocate production to Vietnam.
At the same time, Vietnam significantly expanded imports from China, with their inflow almost exactly matching the value and fluctuations of exports to the US, each totalling around US$140 billion (RM594.9 billion) in 2024, according to data from the US and Vietnam.
— Reuters
