Concerns are growing as US President Donald Trump prepares to announce broad tariffs on “all countries” after Vietnam said it had reduced import charges on a variety of goods, including automobiles, liquefied gas, and some agricultural products.
Following Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s remark last month that Hanoi was examining tariffs to promote more imports from the US, the announcement was made.
After China and Mexico, Washington has the third-highest trade imbalance with Vietnam, and there are growing concerns that it may be a prime target of the White House’s tariff campaign, which has rocked international markets.
“From March 31, 2025, certain items such as cars, wood, ethanol, frozen chicken legs, pistachios, almonds, fresh apples, cherries, raisins, etc., will be subject to a new preferential import duty rate,” a statement said late Monday on the government’s official news portal.
It further stated that the tax rate on liquefied natural gas will be reduced from five percent to two percent, and import levies on certain automobiles will be cut in half.
Tariffs will be lowered from 20 percent to 15 percent for frozen chicken legs, from 15 percent to five percent for unshelled pistachios, and from 10 percent to five percent for almonds.
“I believe that Vietnam is doing everything they can to soften the blow,” said Bruno Jaspaert, CEO at DEEP C Industrial Zones in Vietnam and chairman of the country’s European chamber of commerce.
“Rather than retaliate, they give, and hope to be treated in a better way than most. But the overall expectation is that there will still be tariffs,” he told AFP.
*
Email *
Website
