Tariffs: contrasting responses from China and Vietnam
China is to impose new tariffs of 34% on all imports with a US origin.
The ministry of commerce and the country’s customs authorities announced the new tariffs in a joint statement on April 4.
They said the measures were in response to additional tariffs that the US imposed on imports from China on April 2. The US put the new, additional tariffs on Chinese exports at the same level, 34%.
Vietnam’s immediate response to being hit with tariff levels of 46% on its exports to the US has been to ask for a delay in their imposition to allow time for talks.
The government in Hanoi said on April 4 that it had already been in contact with officials at the office of the US Trade Representative to ask for time to negotiate a settlement.
The director of Vietnam’s overseas markets development department, Dr Nguyen Hoang Long, said in comments to local media that Vietnam and the US have complementary economies, and that the trade structures of the two countries do not compete directly.
The goods exported by Vietnam to the US mainly compete for a share of the US market with products from third countries, Dr Long said, rather than with US companies.
Image shows the port of Ba Ria Vung Tau in Vietnam.
