Vietnam hopes to stop Trump’s US tariffs with trade talks

Trade minister Nguyen Hong Dien is set to meet US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as well as the US Trade Representative, to work on bilateral trade agreements, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorised to speak about the trip. Discussions on energy deals, preventing origin of product fraud and tariff evasion are also expected to be on the agenda, they said.

The United States 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. Some of it comes down to re-routing, with Chinese companies setting up shop elsewhere to skirt tariffs. 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.

Vietnam lists China and the US as its two top trading partners and is looking to keep good relations with both, which benefit its economy. The Southeast Asian nation is one of a litany of countries dispatching envoys to the US to seek exemption from possible tariffs.

“The question is what the US really wants from Vietnam,” said Le Hong Hiep, a senior fellow at the Vietnam Studies Program of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. This could include working together on rare earth production, he added.