The U.S. and Vietnam have struck a tariff deal that will see American goods enter the country at zero-tariff, US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
Washington has clinched a landmark trade deal with Vietnam, under which Vietnamese goods will face a 20% tariff in the US, while Vietnam will give the US total access to their markets for trade.
The agreement, revealed by Trump in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, follows a conversation with To Lam, the ‘highly respected’, as Trump described, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Vietnamese goods will now face a 20 percent tariff, and any transshipments will face a 40 percent levy, Trump said, announcing the trade deal on Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately clear if the deal was finalized or whether Vietnam had agreed to what Trump announced.
“In return, Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The deal between the two countries would be a political boost for Trump, whose team has struggled to quickly close deals with Washington’s biggest trading partners ahead of the July 9 trade deadline.
General Secretary To Lam and Trump spoke on the phone on the Vietnam-U.S. relations and the reciprocal trade negotiations between the two countries.
On the call, To Lam urged the U.S. to soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy and lift export restrictions on certain high-tech products, Vietnam government portal said.
According to the governmental portal, Trump affirmed that the U.S. will significantly reduce reciprocal tariffs on many imports from Vietnam and will continue to work with Vietnam to resolve outstanding trade-related issues, particularly in priority areas of both sides.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the Highly Respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam,” Trump wrote on Truth Social platform, adding that Vietnam will, for the first time, “OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,” meaning that, we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff.”
Trump’s announcement also said that “the SUV or, as it is sometimes referred to, Large Engine Vehicle, which does so well in the United States, will be a wonderful addition to the various product lines within Vietnam.”
The White House has yet to publish any material laying out the details of the deal Trump announced Wednesday morning.
While tariffs have justifiably been top of mind for many businesses, they have always been part of international trade. For European businesses, the combination of tariffs and the new trade regulations are adding complexity to the way they conduct trade.
At the beginning of the year, global container demand grew 6.1% in the first quarter of 2025, which is on par with previous quarters.
Container liner Maersk said the figures for the second quarter of 2025 are not yet final but will reveal a high degree of volatility triggered by tariff announcements.
In the Q1 interim report in May, Maersk forecasted 2025 global container demand to be within a wide range of –1% to 4%, with the conservative view reflecting higher tariffs and potential lower consumer spending in the second half of the year.
“We have seen robust container demand growth in the first half of 2025. What played out was not completely unexpected, and we did see customers advance orders ahead of the tariff announcements. This was more common among manufacturers and less among retailers, but overall we believe that the volume shipped reflects demand. We do not notice significant inventory level increases,” says Karsten Kildahl, Maersk chief commercial officer.
