US recent tariff does not aim at Vietnam: diplomat

The United States’ recent tax measures do not aim at Vietnam and the United States seeks to continue “positive” trade-economic relations with Vietnam, said U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper.

The diplomat made the statement at a Wednesday meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.

The recent tax measures aim to promote fair trade and protect American businesses and workers and the economy, the diplomat clarified.

Knapper highlighted that 2025 is the 30th anniversary of Vietnam-U.S. relations (1995-2025) and the United States seeks to boost the partnership, with trade-economic cooperation playing a key role.

Both the state and private sectors of the United States are willing to collaborate with Vietnam, especially in sectors of energy security, food security, climate, high technology. Vietnam should speed up the updates of the legal framework and facilitate U.S. investments in the country, especially in energy, semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and aviation, the ambassador noted.

The United States highly rated Vietnam’s collaboration in preventing violations of transshipment, evasion of trade defense measures, and origin frauds.

For his part, Minister Dien said he backed the United States’ stance of fair trade and affirmed Vietnam would not apply any measure to discriminate or prevent trade activities or hurt American workers and manufacturers.

Vietnam welcomes U.S. investors in the sectors of new energy, electricity, oil-gas exploration-exploitation-processing, and mining, he added.

Dien also emphasized that the United States is a long-term and reliable provider of energy, machinery, technology, and materials for Vietnam. Key products Vietnam imports from the United States include electronics and components, chemicals, animal feed, and plastics.

Vietnam aims to import more farm produce from the United States, given that American beef, pork, chicken, seafood, dairy products, soybean, corn, apple, and grape are favored in the Vietnamese market, the minister noted.

On February 13 (U.S. time), the White House released its "Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs" policy. It said "the United States imposes fewer barriers to imports than other major world economies, including those with similar political and economic systems."

"It is the policy of the United States to reduce our large and persistent annual trade deficit in goods and to address other unfair and unbalanced aspects of our trade with foreign trading partners," according to the release.

Relevant agencies of the United States and President Donald Trump will work on details of the policy soon, it added.