Vietnam Deal Has Some Takeaways, a China Red Flag and Cues for India

As the India-US trade deal negotiations continue, the deal inked by the Donald Trump administration with Vietnam offers fresh pointers for how Washington DC is approaching these trade agreements.

- ANIL SASI

One, the Vietnam deal shows that Trump is serious about tariffs, and that any belief that his administration plans to put off the tariff threats might be misplaced. The US-Vietnam deal is clearly lopsided against the smaller, developing country, given that the US will impose a 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods entering the country while Vietnam has been arm-twisted to drop all tariffs on American goods. For other countries too, including smaller nations, there is a strong likelihood of the deals being completely lopsided in favor of the US. Also, while the 20% rate is lower than the original proposal of 46% tariff on Vietnam, this rate is certainly higher than the 10% that was levied when the reciprocal tariffs were withdrawn. But there is a really big catch in the deal fineprint.