Posted on 07/02/2025 8:44:16 AM PDT by DFG
President Trump announced Wednesday that US negotiators have reached a tentative trade deal with Vietnam – America’s seventh-largest trade partner and a major manufacturing hub.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the Highly Respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“It will be a Great Deal of Cooperation between our two Countries. The Terms are that Vietnam will pay the United States a 20% Tariff on any and all goods sent into our Territory, and a 40% Tariff on any Transshipping.”
Trump had announced a new 46% tariff rate on Vietnam in his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement of looming “reciprocal” tariffs, but temporarily reduced the levy to an elevated 10% baseline to allow time for negotiations.
The deal announced by Trump indicates that the Vietnamese exports will be charged a higher rate than they have been during the negotiating period.
“In return, Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade,” Trump wrote.
“In other words, they will ‘OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,’ meaning that, we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff. It is my opinion that the SUV or, as it is sometimes referred to, Large Engine Vehicle, which does so well in the United States, will be a wonderful addition to the various product lines within Vietnam.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
And they've kicked the snot out of Red China a couple of times.
I’ll say it again. Give them the $4 million Kissinger promised so they can deal with the Chicoms. While we’re at it send all the American Vietnamese criminals back to the old country. You don’t want to hurt them too much.
Da Nang me, Da Nang me,
Trade with Viet Nam and Ha Giang me;
Capitalists in Ha Noi—
Weep for the Ho Chi Minh boy.
(doop doop doop a doop a doop a dow)
Vietnamese are, whether one thinks it ironic or not, the most pro-American people in Southeast Asia.
It’s fortunate that Ho Chi Minh assumed room temperature before the end of the Vietnam War, at least the folks who replaced him were much more pragmatic, and saw that Communism basically was a failure.
You heard it here first!!!
Cam Ranh will be the new tourist capital of the world.
EC
Great! I want a pair of sandals made from a jeep tire.
I need a bunch of punji stakes to keep out garden pests.
I am not complaining, but I am not sure I see the how we got such a good deal here.
A 20 to 40 percent tariff on Vietnamese goods but Vietnam has no tariff on all our goods and provides an open market?
Ok, Vietnamese are poor generally so they probably wont import nearly as many US goods as US buyers will import Vietnamese goods. Is that the balance? Vietnamese goods are generally cheap due to such cheap labor, so the tariff on those goods helps bring back some jobs (like clothes manufacturing) to the US? Those would be the reasons I can come up with as to why Vietnam would sign onto this and why we would place higher than reciprocal tariffs on Vietnam.
“Ok, Vietnamese are poor”
Not as poor as you may think.
Clearly you haven’t been paying attention. While you were snoozing, Vietnam has quietly been stealing contract manufacturing from China.
Go to a Best Buy or any other computer store and ask to look at an HP Color LaserJet color laser printer or multifunction. Then look at the “Made In” line on the box. Most of the time it will be made in Vietnam instead of China now, and it’s been that way since the last Trump administration.
Vietnam also makes cars that are sold in the US, the Vinfast brand. They’re not great, but they’re not total failures either.
Vietnam doesn’t just make rice and peasants any more. They actually make tech items.
Well, perhaps I worded that poorly. The standard of living in most of the Asian countries, be it Thailand, Vietnam, PI, or there-a bouts is generally lower than here in the US. But standard of living can be measured in different ways.
Clearly you haven’t been paying attention. While you were snoozing,
and it wouldnt sound like you were speaking down to me.
But, ok, I wont disagree with the points of your post. I think they are consistent with mine, except you point out more than just the apparel market.
So the tariff is still to offset the cheap labor.
I was in Vietnam last year. They like Americans, hate the Chinese and are not too crazy about the French.
In terms of development Vietnam is roughly about where China was 25 years ago.
They’ve taken to capitalism and want to get rich.
They’re coming on fast.
There are unfortunately things we can’t make in the US - not because we couldn’t find people to do it here or anything like that, but because there is black-letter law and the resulting environmental regulations that legally prevent certain parts being made here. While Trump is likely working on that, it will take a while so for the time being some stuff is going to have to be made overseas. It’s a lot better that if we can’t re-shore production that we take it away from the CCP - and Vietnam is quite happily taking a small part of the most lucrative contract manufacture, consumer technology, away from them. The tariff offsets the cheap labor, but it is not so high so as to significantly discourage Vietnamese manufactured goods from coming to the US and replacing Chinese ones. Vietnam also, oddly enough for someone we were shooting at not terribly long ago, has been playing fair with regulations and trade. So, yes, tariff, but not enough to keep them from continuing to quietly take China’s lunch while being a better trading partner than them.
What we get out of it:
1. A small new market for American goods.
2. A weakened China.
3. A better trading partner for goods we need and can’t make ourselves.
They’re getting to the point where they’re almost Communist In Name Only.
Dollar index will still fall
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