Vietnam, the first country to surrender to Trump and offer an FTA

President Donald Trump revealed that he had a conversation with the Vietnamese leader, To Lam, who expressed his desire to reduce Vietnam's tariffs to "ZERO" if they could reach an agreement with the United States.

This announcement, made by Trump on social media, caused a rise in the stocks of companies that manufacture some of their products in Vietnam, like Nike, whose shares rose more than 4%.

The Trump administration had imposed tariffs of 46% on Vietnamese products at the beginning of the week, which led to a request from the Ministry of Commerce of Vietnam for the United States to suspend this measure and engage in further negotiations.

This request came after Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10% on all products imported to the United States, in addition to additional tariffs on about 60 countries. Vietnam was one of the countries most affected by the reciprocal tariffs.

The Ministry of Commerce of Vietnam requested a call between the Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, as soon as possible.

According to a statement from the Vietnamese government, there is still "room for discussion and negotiation." Ta Hoang Linh, head of the Ministry's Department of Foreign Market Development, highlighted that Vietnamese products exported to the United States mainly compete with those from other countries, not with U.S. products.

In response, Vietnam expressed its regret over the United States' decision to impose these tariffs and emphasized that the new measure could negatively affect the country's goal of achieving 8% growth by 2025.

Vietnamese Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, noted that this tariff "is not in line with the good relationship between both countries" and ordered the creation of a task force to provide a quick response. However, the growth target remains unchanged for now.

According to the latest report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the average import tax rate on Vietnamese products is 9.4%, while U.S. products exported to Vietnam are subject to tax rates of 15% or less.

This suggests that the products taxed by Vietnam are considerably lower than the 90% or 46% calculated by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi also showed its optimism regarding the possibilities of reaching an agreement. Adam Sitkoff, the Chamber's executive director, expressed that if the countries find a way to reach an agreement with Trump, significant changes in tariffs would likely occur.