US-President Donald Trump has introduced tariffs on goods reaching the US from countries around the world. In July 2025 he announced that Washington will charge 20 percent tariffs on imports from Vietnam under a new trade deal. Taking into account that Vietnam has a large trade surplus with the US, the tariffs could have been worse. However, they still pose a challenge to Vietnam’s development goals.

Learn more in this article by Nguyen Van Tung, Project Manager at Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung's Hanoi Office.