The US imposes a 46% retaliatory tariff: How is Vietnam responding?

Vietnam is implementing various measures to respond to the 46% tariff from the US, including reducing import taxes and strengthening trade.

VietnamPlus•07/04/2025

Processing seafood for export. (Photo: Vu Sinh/VNA)

Listening to feedback from businesses; reducing taxes on certain groups of goods and industries imported from the United States into Vietnam; reviewing and removing technical barriers; responding to issues of origin fraud and illegal transshipment; increasing imports of goods originating from the United States... these are just some of the measures Vietnam has been actively implementing to find common ground in resolving the issue of import tariffs.

Taking timely and proactive action.

From April 3rd to the present, numerous meetings, working sessions, and telephone conversations have been held by leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam to exchange views and discuss solutions to remove tariff barriers imposed by the US administration, ensuring a balance of interests for both sides.

Immediately after the United States announced its retaliatory tariff policy, on the morning of April 3rd, the Standing Committee of the Government convened an emergency meeting to assess the situation, the impact of the US tariff policy, and to propose solutions to adapt to the situation.

At the same time, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien sent a diplomatic note to the US Trade Representative requesting a temporary suspension of the tariff decision to allow for discussions and the search for a harmonious solution; he also requested that a phone call be arranged as soon as possible to discuss and resolve this issue.

A Task Force on enhancing cooperation and proactively adapting to adjustments in US economic and trade policies, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son, was also established by a decision signed by the Prime Minister on the same day.

Working with businesses exporting goods to the United States, associations, and relevant agencies in the early afternoon of April 4th, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc listened to many valuable suggestions, addressed difficulties and obstacles faced by export businesses, promoted the implementation of US projects in Vietnam, and adjusted some tax rates on goods imported from the United States...

On the evening of April 4th, Vietnam time, General Secretary To Lam had a telephone conversation with the head of the White House.

During that phone call, the General Secretary affirmed Vietnam's readiness to discuss with the US side to reduce import tariffs to 0% on goods imported from the US, and also requested the US to apply similar tariffs to goods imported from Vietnam, continue importing more goods from the US that Vietnam needs, and encourage and facilitate US companies to further increase investment in Vietnam.

The past two days of the weekend continued with very urgent and continuous work, demonstrating the persistent efforts of the leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son, Head of the Task Force on Strengthening Cooperation and Proactively Adapting to Adjustments in US Economic and Trade Policies, received US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc E. Knapper. (Source: Government Newspaper)

Besides the meeting of the Government Standing Committee with relevant agencies (April 5th) to implement the conclusions of the Politburo and to convey the message of the phone call between General Secretary To Lam and US President Donald Trump, on April 6th, in his role as Head of the Task Force on strengthening cooperation and proactively adapting to adjustments in US economic and trade policies, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son received the US Ambassador to Vietnam, Marc E. Knapper.

He reiterated the key messages of General Secretary To Lam during his phone call with President Donald Trump; announced that the General Secretary had sent Special Envoy, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, to the United States to further concretize these contents; and requested the US President to postpone the deadline for imposing reciprocal tariffs on Vietnamese goods during the tariff negotiations between the two countries.

"Vietnam shares the United States' concern for balancing the trade balance, but regrets the U.S. decision to impose very high retaliatory tariffs on Vietnamese exports, affecting businesses in both countries and especially impacting millions of Vietnamese people," Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son told Ambassador Marc E. Knapper.

He argued that the decision to impose retaliatory tariffs was inconsistent with the reality of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and did not accurately reflect the spirit of the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, negatively impacting the well-developing economic and trade relations between the two countries.

During a phone call with his Malaysian counterpart, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, on the afternoon of April 6th, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh informed him about Vietnam's efforts in discussions with the United States regarding measures to resolve obstacles and promote economic and trade cooperation, aiming for fair, sustainable trade that harmonizes the interests of all parties.

During the regular Government meeting in March 2025 and the online Government-Local Authorities Conference held yesterday morning, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also mentioned efforts to engage in dialogue to address the legitimate requests of the other side, based on harmonious interests and shared risks.

Vietnam deserves to be treated fairly.

During his first term as President, Donald Trump visited Vietnam twice, in 2017 and 2019.

On April 2nd, when announcing the imposition of new tariffs on more than 180 economies, Donald Trump mentioned Vietnam twice, exclaiming, "Vietnam, they are very good negotiators. They like me. I like them," but he also suggested that because Vietnam imposed a 90% tariff on imported goods from the United States, the US retaliated with a 46% tariff.

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A screenshot of US President Donald Trump's announcement on the social media platform Truth Social about his phone call with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. (Photo: Ngoc Quang/VNA)

Perhaps due to positive impressions of Vietnam, as well as a sense of goodwill from the Vietnamese leadership, immediately after the phone call, President Donald Trump shared a status update on the social media platform Truth Social: "I just had a very productive phone call with Mr. To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. He told me that Vietnam wants to reduce tariffs to zero if they can reach an agreement with the United States. I thanked him on behalf of the country and said that I look forward to meeting him in person soon."

Although Vietnam was not the first country to negotiate with the United States regarding retaliatory tariffs, it was the first country where President Donald Trump announced the results of the phone call on his official website.

"The nature of the phone call shows the timely and proactive involvement of the country's leaders, and also demonstrates the consistent spirit that we always have respect and a willingness to listen in economic diplomacy and in our relationship with the United States," Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc Thuy, Director of the Office of the Private Economic Development Research Board (Board IV), shared with a VNA reporter.

According to her, many countries have been preparing for rounds of negotiations, however, President Donald Trump posting news of his phone call with General Secretary To Lam on his personal page is a very special detail, "showing that in the diplomatic and trade relationship between the two countries, there is something special compared to the general story."

There is still a lot of technical work to be done in the negotiations, but this detail is very encouraging for the business community.

"With consistency in economic diplomacy, and a proactive and sincere approach to negotiations, we hope that the upcoming negotiations will make significant progress, meeting the expectations of the business community," Ms. Thuy said.

The urgent and proactive actions of our Party and State leaders have conveyed a message of Vietnam's utmost goodwill, hoping that the negotiations will yield positive results, contributing to the promotion of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. This is affirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, who stated that "Vietnam is always proactive, open-minded, and strongly cooperates with the US side to negotiate tariffs fairly, combat the issue of transshipment of goods, and promote bilateral trade in a mutually beneficial way."

The government did not wait until the US announced this tariff policy; for over two months, it had proactively and actively addressed the trade concerns of President Donald Trump's administration.

Party and State leaders, as well as leaders of ministries and agencies, have engaged in dialogue with the US side, exchanging views through all political and diplomatic channels. In early March, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh spent over three hours listening to the opinions of major US corporations and businesses.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, and Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung chaired a roundtable discussion with US businesses. (Photo: Duong Giang/VNA)

On the one hand, we have essentially addressed the concerns of the US side, particularly by proactively reducing 23 import tariff lines (many of which have a 0% tariff rate, or lower than the US tariffs applied to Vietnam), creating favorable conditions for US businesses to invest, produce, and conduct business in Vietnam; on the other hand, we have strived to promote a balanced trade balance between the two countries through contracts for the purchase of goods from the US.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, Vietnam is currently purchasing 250 Boeing aircraft and a number of other military aircraft, liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth $6 billion, along with other goods and equipment worth over $90 billion...

Minister of Agriculture and Environment Do Duc Duy stated that Vietnam has been making great efforts to remove barriers to the import of US agricultural products into Vietnam, such as corn, soybeans, fruits, beef, chicken, and more recently, genetically modified products used in animal feed and aquaculture.

To date, the US has submitted 61 dossiers regarding genetically modified products. The Ministry has processed 60 out of 61 dossiers, with only one remaining pending additional information from the US partner.

"Currently, we are reviewing and amending Circular 04 related to specialized inspections of food products imported from the United States into Vietnam. During the amendment process, we will send our consultations to our US partners to ensure that technical barriers continue to be removed in the most streamlined manner," Minister Do Duc Duy said.

Regarding the response to the issue of combating origin fraud and illegal transshipment, according to Deputy Minister Le Tan Can, the Ministry of Finance has directed the Customs Department to strengthen management of import and export activities; improve awareness and the effectiveness of enforcing legal regulations on trade defense, origin, customs, and combating evasion of trade defense measures...

The economic diplomacy efforts of the Government leaders in recent days, along with the willingness to cooperate from industry business associations and AmCham, USABC, give us optimistic confidence in a positive, fair, and harmonious negotiation outcome that benefits both countries - two Comprehensive Strategic Partners, with a history of nearly 30 years of establishing and nurturing diplomatic relations.

Let me conclude this article with the opinion of Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office: "Vietnam has never sought to enrich itself through illegitimate means. Vietnam does not manipulate. Vietnam is simply doing what every ambitious nation does: seriously participating in the global game, using its own labor. And therefore, Vietnam deserves to be treated fairly."

(VNA/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/hoa-ky-ap-thue-doi-ung-46-viet-nam-ung-pho-ra-sao-post1025270.vnp