The United States imposes a 46% reciprocal tax: How will Vietnam respond?

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

Listening to advice from businesses; reducing taxes on some groups of goods and industries imported from the US to Vietnam; reviewing and removing technical barriers; responding to the issue of origin fraud and illegal transshipment; increasing the import of goods originating from the US... Vietnam has been actively implementing a series of measures to soon find a common voice in resolving the issue of imposing import taxes on goods.

Take action promptly and proactively

Since April 3, many meetings, working sessions, and phone calls have been held by the leaders of our Party and State to discuss and remove tariff barriers imposed by the US government, ensuring the harmony of interests for both sides.

Immediately after the US announced its reciprocal tax policy, on the morning of April 3, the Government Standing Committee convened an urgent meeting to assess the situation and the impact of the US tax policy, and 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 postponement of the decision to impose the above tax to discuss and find a harmonious solution; requested to arrange a phone call as soon as possible to discuss and handle this issue.

A Working Group on enhancing cooperation and proactively adapting to the US's economic and trade policy adjustments, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son, was also established by the Prime Minister's decision on the same day.

Working with businesses exporting goods to the US, associations and relevant agencies in the early afternoon of April 4, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc listened to many valuable suggestions, removed difficulties and obstacles of export businesses, promoted the implementation of US projects in Vietnam; adjusted some taxes on imported goods from the US...

On the evening of April 4, Vietnam time, General Secretary To Lam had a phone call with the Head of the White House.

During the phone call, the General Secretary affirmed that Vietnam is ready to discuss with the US side to reduce import tax to 0% for goods imported from the US, and at the same time propose that the US apply similar tax rates to goods imported from Vietnam, continue to import more goods from the US that Vietnam needs, and encourage and create favorable conditions for companies from the US to further increase investment in Vietnam.

The past two weekends continued with very urgent and continuous work, showing the persistent efforts of the leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son, Head of the Working Group 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)

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

He reaffirmed the major messages of General Secretary To Lam in 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 continue to concretize these contents; and at the same time 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 US's concern about balancing the trade balance, but regrets the US's decision to impose very high reciprocal tariffs on Vietnamese exports, affecting businesses of the two countries and especially affecting millions of Vietnamese people," Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son told Ambassador Marc E. Knapper.

He said that the decision to impose reciprocal taxes is not consistent with the reality of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and does not reflect the spirit of the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, negatively affecting the developing economic and trade relations between the two countries.

In a phone call with his counterpart - Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on the afternoon of April 6, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh informed about Vietnam's efforts in discussing with the US side on measures to remove obstacles, promote economic and trade cooperation, towards fair and sustainable trade, harmonizing the interests of all parties.

In the regular Government meeting in March 2025 and the Government's online conference with localities held yesterday morning, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also mentioned the efforts to communicate to resolve the legitimate requests of the other side, on the basis of harmonious interests and shared risks.

Vietnam deserves fair treatment

As President in his first term, Mr. Donald Trump visited Vietnam twice in 2017 and 2019.

On April 2, when announcing the application of new tariffs on more than 180 economies, Mr. Donald Trump mentioned Vietnam's name twice and exclaimed, "Vietnam, they are very good negotiators. They like me. I like them," but he also said that because Vietnam imposes a 90% tax on imported goods from the United States, this country responded with a 46% tariff policy.

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

Perhaps because of his good impressions of Vietnam, as well as feeling the goodwill from the Vietnamese leadership, right after the phone call, President Donald Trump shared a status on the social network 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 in the near future."

Although Vietnam is not the first country to negotiate with the United States regarding the imposition of reciprocal tariffs, it is the first country with which 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 at the same time demonstrates the consistent spirit that we always have respect and receptiveness in economic diplomacy and in our relationship with the United States," Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc Thuy, Director of the Office of Private Economic Development Research (Department IV) shared with VNA reporters.

According to her, many countries have been preparing for negotiations, but 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 relationship, trade activities between the two countries are special compared to the general story."

There is still a lot of technical work to be done in the negotiations, but this is a detail that greatly encourages the business community.

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

The urgent and positive actions of the Party and State leaders have conveyed the message that Vietnam is very willing and wishes for the negotiations to achieve good results, contributing to promoting the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries, as affirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc that "Vietnam is always proactive, receptive and strongly coordinates with the US side to negotiate fair tariffs, combat the problem of goods transit, and promote two-way trade in a mutually beneficial direction."

Not waiting for the US to announce this tariff policy, but over the past 2 months, the Government has proactively and actively addressed the trade concerns of the Donald Trump administration.

Party and State leaders, as well as leaders of ministries and sectors, have communicated with the US side and exchanged views through all political and diplomatic channels. In early March, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh spent more than 3 hours listening to the opinions of large US corporations and businesses.

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

On the one hand, we have basically resolved the issues of concern to the US side, especially proactively reducing 23 import tax lines (many tax lines have a tax rate of 0%, or lower than the US tax rate applied to Vietnam), creating favorable conditions for US enterprises to invest, produce and do business in Vietnam; on the other hand, we have made efforts to promote the trade balance between the two countries through contracts to purchase goods from this country.

According to information from Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, Vietnam is implementing the purchase of 250 Boeing aircraft and a number of military aircraft, purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth 6 billion USD and many other goods and equipment worth over 90 billion USD...

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

Up to this point, the US side has sent 61 dossiers on genetically modified products, the Ministry has processed 60/61 dossiers, only one dossier is waiting for the US partner to provide additional information.

"We are currently reviewing and revising Circular 04 regarding specialized inspection of food products imported from the United States to Vietnam. During the revision process, we will send consultations to our US partners to ensure that technical barriers continue to be removed in the most open manner," said Minister Do Duc Duy.

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; raise awareness and effectively enforce 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 join hands from industry business associations and AmCham, USABC give us optimism for a good, fair and harmonious negotiation result with the interests of the two countries - two Comprehensive Strategic Partners, with a history of nearly 30 years of establishing and nurturing diplomatic relations.

I would like to conclude this article with the opinion of Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office, "Vietnam has never sought to get rich through illegal means. Vietnam does not manipulate. Vietnam is just doing what every ambitious country does: Seriously participating in the global game, with its own labor. And therefore, Vietnam deserves to be treated fairly"./.

(Vietnam+)

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