President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a new trade agreement with Vietnam that includes a minimum 20% U.S. tariff on Vietnamese imports while granting American businesses full access to the Vietnamese market. The deal comes just days before Trump’s July 9 deadline for imposing steeper tariffs on U.S. trading partners lacking new agreements.
Announcing the development on his Truth Social platform, Trump described it as a “Great Deal of Cooperation” with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, following talks with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam.
Under the deal, Vietnamese goods entering the U.S. will face a 20% tariff, while goods transshipped through Vietnam from other nations will be taxed at 40%. In return, Trump said Vietnam would “open their market to the United States” entirely, offering zero tariffs on U.S. exports — a move he claimed was “unprecedented.”
Trump specifically highlighted U.S.-made SUVs as likely to thrive under the new arrangement, calling them “a wonderful addition to the various product lines within Vietnam.”
Initial market reaction was mixed. Shares of U.S. clothing and sporting goods companies with major operations in Vietnam briefly rose on the trade deal announcement but dropped sharply after details of the sustained tariffs emerged.
The Vietnam agreement is the third Trump administration trade deal announced since April, following arrangements with Britain and China. All maintain elements of Trump’s broader tariff strategy, which seeks “reciprocity” in global trade and penalizes what the administration calls unfair trade practices.
Without the deal, tariffs on Vietnamese goods would have surged to 46% under Trump’s earlier framework. With the agreement in place, the baseline 10% duty rises to 20%, but Vietnam avoids the most severe penalties.
The deal also intensifies pressure on other U.S. trading partners, including the European Union and Japan, who face the looming July 9 deadline for their own trade pacts or risk higher tariffs.
Written By Rodney Mbua
