Trump Announces Vietnam Trade Deal

President Donald J. Trump bids farewell to Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, at the conclusion of the Commercial Trade Signing Ceremony at the Presidential Palace Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

President Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam that avoids steep new tariffs. Vietnam will eliminate all tariffs on U.S. goods, while the U.S. will impose a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports and a 40% tariff on transshipped goods, reports Bloomberg. The deal aims to open Vietnam’s market to U.S. products and curb trade fraud. Vietnam also pledged to purchase more American goods, including $3 billion in agricultural products. They write:

President Donald Trump said he had reached a trade deal with Vietnam following weeks of intense diplomacy between the nations and ahead of a deadline next week that would have seen higher tariffs imposed on the country’s imports.

A 20% tariff will be placed on Vietnamese exports to the US, with a 40% levy on any goods deemed to be transshipped through the country, Trump said in a social-media post on Wednesday. Trump said that Vietnam had agreed to drop all levies on US imports. […]

The deal with Vietnam would be just the third announced following agreements with the UK and China, as trading partners race to cut agreements with the US ahead of a July 9 deadline.  […]

Vietnam offered to remove all tariffs and repeatedly promised to purchase more American goods. Senior Vietnamese officials flew to the US to rally support and sign deals, including for $3 billion of agricultural goods. The trade minister also wooed executives from Nike, Gap and others to encourage them to get behind negotiation efforts.

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