President Trump announces trade deal with Vietnam that will let US goods into the country duty-free

By PAUL WISEMAN and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump communicated a contract deal with Vietnam Wednesday that would allow U S goods to enter the country duty-free Vietnamese exports to the United States by contrast would face a levy Related Articles Daughter of assassinated civil rights leader sees painful echoes of political violence in America Here s how millions of people could lose medical insurance if Trump s tax bill becomes law A day outside an LA detention center shows profound impact of ICE raids on families Trump keeps saying the GOP mega bill will eliminate taxes on Social Defense It does not Wisconsin Supreme Court s liberal majority strikes down -year-old abortion ban On his Truth Social platform Trump declared the pact a Great Deal of Cooperation between our two Countries In April Trump broadcasted a tax on Vietnamese imports one of his so-called reciprocal tariffs targeting dozens of countries with which the United States runs transaction deficits Trump promptly suspended the reciprocal tariffs for days to allow for negotiations like the one with Vietnam The pause expires Tuesday but so far the Trump administration has reached a business agreement with only one of those countries the United Kingdom Trump has also reached a framework agreement with China in a separate pact dispute Vietnam has been very keen to get out from under this revealed Mary Lovely senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics This is forcing a smaller country to eat it basically We can do that It s the big countries that everybody s keeping their eyes on She doubts that Trump will be able to impose such a lopsided agreement on big trading partners such as the European Union and Japan The United States last year ran a billion contract deficit with Vietnam That was the third-biggest U S transaction gap the difference between the goods and services it buys from other countries and those it sells them behind the ones with China and Mexico In addition to the tariffs Trump revealed the U S would impose a tax on transshipping goods from another country that stop in Vietnam on their way to the United States Washington complains that Chinese goods have been dodging higher U S tariffs by transiting through Vietnam A February assessment in the Harvard Business Review identified that there was much less rerouting than previously deduced In May Vietnam approved a billion project by the Trump Organization and a local partner to build a massive golf resort complex near Hanoi covering an area roughly the size of football fields Vietnam was a beneficiary of American efforts to counter China s influence Companies looking to diversify their supply chains away from China flocked to Vietnam In it became the only country to host both President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on state visits That year the U S upgraded Vietnam to its highest diplomatic status comprehensive strategic partner placing it on par with China and Russia Aniruddha Ghosal broadcasted from Hanoi Vietnam