President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US will charge 20% tariffs on imports from Vietnam under a new trade deal reached during last-minute negotiations.
A much higher levy of 46% was set to go into effect next week as part of the global tariff plan Trump announced in April. Dozens of other economies, including the European Union and Japan, are still scrambling to make their own deals with the US before the planned increases.
Under the agreement, Vietnam will charge no tariffs on US products, Trump said in a social media post.
Tariffs typically push up the prices that shoppers are charged, which in turn can drive down demand.
The “Great Deal of Cooperation”, as Trump called it, will also impose a steeper tariff of 40% on goods that pass through Vietnam in a process known as “transshipping”.
“Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“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,” he added.
The president said he believed US-made SUVs, “which do so well in the United States, will be a wonderful addition to the various product lines within Vietnam”.
Shares in clothing companies and sport equipment manufacturers – which have a large footprint in Vietnam – rose on the news a deal had been reached, but later declined sharply after the president released details, including the continued tariffs.
Trump initially imposed steep levies on trading partners around the world in April , citing a lack of “reciprocity”, but then announced a pause where they were all lowered to 10%.
Many countries then approached the US to negotiate trade deals, according to the White House.
Since April, Washington had so far only announced a pact with Britain and a deal to temporarily lower retaliatory duties with China.