Vietnam may lose $25 billion from US tariffs, UN estimates

US tariffs imposed in August risk slashing up to one-fifth of Vietnam's exports to the United States, making it the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia, according to estimates by the United Nations Development Programme.

- FRANCESCO GUARASCIO

Vietnam was the world’s sixth-largest exporter to America last year with $136.5 billion worth of shipped goods, US trade data show. Those goods are largely produced in factories run by US and foreign multinational companies or their suppliers.

In a worst-case scenario of very high tariff-driven US inflation, the 20% duties levied on Vietnamese goods could cause its US exports to fall “over time by more than $25 billion, nearly one fifth of the yearly total,’ Philip Schellekens, UNDP chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region, told Reuters.

Vietnam's finance and industry ministries did not immediately reply to requests for comment.