US reaches Vietnam trade deal

Trump says tariffs will be cut to 20%

- FRANCESCA STEVENS NGUYEN DIEU TU UYEN JENNIFER A DLOUHY

President Donald Trump said he had reached a trade deal with Vietnam following weeks of intense diplomacy between the nations and ahead of a deadline next week that would have seen higher tariffs imposed on the country's imports.

A 20% tariff will be placed on Vietnamese exports to the US, with a 40% levy on any goods deemed to be transshipped through the country, Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday. Trump said that Vietnam had agreed to drop all levies on US imports.

"In other words, they will "OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES," meaning that, we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff," Trump wrote. The president said he had secured the deal after discussions with Communist Party chief To Lam.

Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Trump pledged to continue cooperating "in resolving issues affecting bilateral trade relations" during the leaders' call Wednesday and that To Lam proposed that the US recognise Vietnam as a "market economy and remove export restrictions on certain high-tech products."

Although Trump shared the broad contours of the agreement, the White House has not yet released a term sheet or published any kind of proclamation codifying the arrangement. And some of the details could still be in development. The US and UK first announced their own trade deal in early May, but it wasn't until mid-June that Trump signed an executive order implementing the accord. And even then, key details have been set aside to be addressed later.