U.S.-Vietnam Tariff Battle Escalates

Fifty years to the month after the Vietnam War officially ended, a new battle – albeit an economic one contested mainly in government offices rather than the bloody guerilla warfare that raged throughout the Vietnamese countryside during the earlier dispute – has broken out between the U.S. and that Southeast Asian country. Rather than a struggle over the spread of Communism, this time the dispute centers around trade tariffs.

As noted by a variety of news sources, Vietnam was one of the countries hit hardest by the global reciprocal tariffs announced earlier this month by the Trump administration. Specifically, President Trump announced a 46 percent tax on all Vietnamese imports on April 2 after his administration calculated Vietnam’s tariffs on U.S. imports to be 90 percent.

In its coverage of the dispute, The New York Times reported that American consumers would likely suffer financially from the tariffs, because Vietnam is crucial in the global manufacturing supply chain. “For decades, the country has built its economy around attracting foreign investment with cheap labor and a young work force,” the Times reported. “It is now a top manufacturer of brands such as Adidas and Lululemon. Nike makes about half of its footwear in Vietnam.”

On April 6, Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son met with the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Marc Knapper, reiterated his country’s willingness to lower the import tariff rate on U.S. products to zero in hope of postponing the onset of the new tariffs, according to Newsweek. In a letter sent by Lam to Trump, Lam requested the implementation of the 46 percent duties be postponed by at least 45 days after April 9.

But the gloves came off later that same day, when U.S. Senior Trade Counselor Peter Navarro went on Fox News and called Vietnam the “poster child for nontariff cheating,” and said that even if the country were to remove all its tariffs, the U.S. would still be in a heavy trade deficit.

“If you simply lowered our tariffs and they lowered our tariffs the zero, we’d still run about $120 billion trade deficit with Vietnam,” he said, arguing that Vietnam consistently rebrands Chinese exports as its own products before shipping them to the U.S., while also utilizing export subsidies, currency manipulation and “fake standards” which prevent U.S. manufacturers from making headway in Asian markets.

As of this posting, Vietnam had not responded to Navarre’s characterization of the trade imbalance between the two countries.