HANOI: Vietnam mentioned it lower import duties on a variety of products, together with vehicles, liquefied fuel and a few agricultural merchandise, with issues escalating forward of US President Donald Trump’s deliberate unveiling of sweeping tariffs on “all nations”.
The announcement got here after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh mentioned final month that Hanoi was reviewing levies with a view to encourage elevated imports from america.
Washington’s commerce deficit with Vietnam is the third highest of any nation, after China and Mexico, and there are growing fears it may very well be a key goal of the White Home’s tariff drive, which has despatched shockwaves by means of world markets.
“From Mar 31, 2025, sure objects corresponding to vehicles, wooden, ethanol, frozen rooster legs, pistachios, almonds, recent apples, cherries, raisins, and so on, will likely be topic to a brand new preferential import obligation price,” an announcement mentioned late Monday (Mar 31) on the federal government’s official information portal.
It added that import duties on some vehicles will likely be halved and the tax price for liquefied pure fuel will drop from 5 per cent to 2 per cent.
Tariffs on frozen rooster legs will likely be decreased from 20 per cent to fifteen per cent, the charges on unshelled pistachios will likely be slashed from 15 per cent to five per cent, and for almonds, it can drop from 10 per cent to five per cent.
“I consider that Vietnam is doing the whole lot they’ll to melt the blow,” mentioned Bruno Jaspaert, CEO at DEEP C Industrial Zones in Vietnam and chairman of the nation’s European chamber of commerce.
“Moderately than retaliate, they offer, and hope to be handled in a greater manner than most. However the general expectation is that there’ll nonetheless be tariffs,” he advised AFP.
