BY KHANH VU AND FRANCESCO GUARASCIO
HANOI- Vietnam stands ready to import more farm products from the United States, according to a statement from trade minister Nguyen Hong Dien on Friday, a day after US President Donald Trump said he would start imposing global reciprocal tariffs.
The Southeast Asian export hub, home to manufacturing operations of multinationals including Apple and Samsung could be hit hard by any new tariffs. Last year, it posted a record $123.5 billion trade surplus with the US the largest after China, the European Union and Mexico.
“Vietnam is ready to open its market and increase imports of agricultural products from the United States,” Dien told US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper at a meeting this week, the Vietnamese government said on Friday.
More than one-fourth of US exports to Vietnam last year were agricultural products, mostly cotton, soybeans and tree nuts, for a total value of $3.4 billion, according to US government data.
A White House official, who spoke to reporters on Thursday before Trump ordered his team to devise a plan on reciprocal tariffs, said the administration would study countries with the biggest trade surpluses and highest tariffs first.
Among top US trading partners, Vietnam is one of the countries with the largest tariff gaps, charging higher import duties than those applied by the United States.
Vietnam imposes average import duties of 9.4 percent, according to the World Trade Organization.
Last week, the government of the export-reliant country, whose largest market is the United States, set up a working group to address any rising risks from trade tensions.
Trump has not explicitly mentioned Vietnam as a trade target, but new 25 percent tariffs imposed this week by the US on steel and aluminum have already hit the Southeast Asian nation.
