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Vietnam said Wednesday that it wants its companies to buy more high-value US imports in large volumes and at a stable pace, reaffirming its opening line on trade talks with Washington to avoid punishingly high tariffs.
The Southeast Asian nation’s trade minister and top negotiator, Nguyen Hong Dien, urged the firms, including in energy, mining, telecommunications and aviation, during a meeting in Hanoi to be “proactive” to help US-Vietnam trade reach its “great potential,” the government said in a statement.
Nguyen Hong Dien also met with the US Ambassador to Vietnam, Marc Knapper, “to promote the ongoing negotiation process aimed at addressing current bilateral economic and trade issues,” it said.
Vietnam is among a group of countries opening trade talks with the US that are facing some of the steepest tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, aimed at reviving manufacturing that moved overseas in recent decades. Trump’s main target, China, is also a major trade partner for Vietnam but has challenged its access to offshore areas both countries claim in the South China Sea.
Vietnam’s trade surplus narrowed sharply in April in what could be an early indication of the impact of higher US tariffs. The surplus in April was $577 million, compared with the $1.64 billion reported for March, according to data released by the National Statistics Office in Hanoi Tuesday.
US officials late last month had draft plans to hold negotiations with about 18 countries over three weeks, using a template that lays out common areas of concern to help guide the discussions, including on tariffs, non-tariff barriers, digital trade, economic security and commercial concerns.
The US ran a nearly $124 billion trade deficit with Vietnam last year, according to the US Trade Representative, the third-highest after China and Mexico. The surge in trading in recent years is partly due to firms leaving China to avoid Trump’s trade war during his first term. Besides being a large apparel exporter, Vietnam has also become a manufacturing base for multinational companies including Apple Inc.’s suppliers and Samsung Electronics Co.
USTR Jamieson Greer in March told Nguyen Hong Dien in Washington that Vietnam must improve the trade balance and further open its market, which the government in Hanoi pledged to do via removing tariffs on US goods and buying more from the US. Vietnam also vowed to combat trade fraud and increase monitoring of products’ origin.