Vietnam to hold first round of trade talks with US on Wednesday

Vietnam will hold its first round of negotiations with the U.S. on bilateral trade Wednesday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said at the ongoing session of the country's parliament.

In a report on the socio-economic situation in the early months of 2025, presented to the National Assembly on Monday, the Prime Minister noted that since the beginning of the year, the global situation had witnessed highly complex and unpredictable developments.

In particular, the U.S.’s unexpected announcement of broad-based, high reciprocal tariffs had adversely affected global economic growth, severely threatened supply chains, and disrupted the flow of international trade and investment.

President Trump on April 2 said that he would levy massive 46% tariffs on imports from Vietnam as part of a new wave of global impositions, effective from April 9. One week later, he announced a 90-day suspension of tariff enforcement on all partners, except for China.

In this context, Vietnam has responded calmly and proactively, implementing timely and flexible measures that had yielded initial positive results, according to the government leader.

Vietnam is among six countries (together with the UK, India, South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia) that the US has given higher priority in negotiations, the PM told the parliament.

On May 1, a Vietnamese technical delegation traveled to the U.S. to work with relevant American agencies in preparation for the bilateral trade talks.

Chinh stressed that negotiations with the U.S. will be conducted in a spirit of protecting Vietnam’s legitimate rights and interests, while promoting balanced and sustainable trade. He affirmed that these efforts would not compromise Vietnam’s existing international commitments.

Earlier, he had noted that the Vietnamese side should discuss with the U.S. side so that the two could reduce import tariffs on each other's goods to low and commensurate levels.

They should also propose the U.S. soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy and remove restrictions on high-tech exports, contributing to balancing trade and technology transfer, he added.

Vietnam will continue to amend its legal basis to address the U.S.'s concerns on the basis of ensuring sovereignty and international commitments and in line with the laws of both sides, Chinh stated.

At the National Assembly's ongoing session, the Government is scheduled to submit to the legislature amendments to many laws related to intellectual property, copyright protection, intellectual property protection, and administrative procedure reduction to suit the reality.

The Prime Minister had stressed that Vietnam is also closely coordinating with ASEAN and countries in the region to conduct negotiations, ensuring harmony of interests, a sustainable trade balance between the two sides, and commensuration with the ASEAN-U.S. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.