Vietnam aims to sign a trade agreement with the United States soon, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Wednesday as a fresh round of talks begins in Washington.
In October, the two countries agreed to finalise a trade deal within weeks that would maintain U.S. tariffs of 20% on its imports of Vietnamese goods, but exempt some unspecified products from the new duty imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in August.
Reducing Trade Deficit
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Michael DeSombre, told the conference that the trade deal should rebalance commercial flows between the two countries, reducing the U.S. deficit with Hanoi, which is the largest after China and Mexico.
Vietnam has recorded a $111 billion trade surplus with the U.S. in the first 10 months, likely setting a new annual record, according to Vietnamese data.
Talks On Exemption List
A Vietnamese delegation led by Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien is in Washington this week for a new round of talks with U.S. officials to work on finalising the trade agreement, the Vietnamese trade ministry said on its web portal.
According to the sources, negotiations would focus on identifying Vietnamese items that could be exempted from U.S. tariffs, such as coffee, and on the scope of the preferential access to the Vietnamese market that Hanoi has pledged for U.S. products, such as cars and farm goods.
The Vietnamese side aimed to finalise the deal ideally after the U.S. Supreme Court decides on the legality of U.S. tariffs imposed by Trump, and possibly by December.
Son urged U.S. businesses at a conference on Wednesday to support Vietnam’s efforts to set up the high-level meeting and to encourage Washington to recognise Vietnam as a market economy and lift its restrictions on the export of high-tech products, such as advanced semiconductors.
(With inputs from Reuters)
