说什么20%不是他们同意了。
Vietnam thought it had a deal on its US tariff rate. Then Trump stepped in.
Neither side has released documentation of the tariff terms, raising questions about whether they did, in fact, reach an agreement.
Hanoi has said little publicly about the tariff rates since the president announced them on social media. | Evan Vucci/AP
Vietnam thought it had a preliminary deal with the U.S. to lower its tariff level substantially. Then, at the last minute, President Donald Trump raised the rate.
As a result, the Vietnamese government still has not formally accepted a key part of the agreement the president touted on social media last week, despite Trump’s claim in the post that the terms had been agreed to by Vietnam’s leader, Tô Lâm, according to four people familiar with the discussions and granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. And neither side has released documentation of those terms, raising questions about whether they did, in fact, reach an agreement, as the White House labors to prove it is making headway in its trade negotiations with dozens of major partners.
Trump announced the framework agreement on Truth Social on July 2, just days before the White House’s self-imposed July 8 deadline for trade negotiations. The deal was just the second the administration has reached to avoid its threatened “reciprocal” tariffs, after Trump suggested in an April interview that he’d made 200 deals. According to Trump’s July 2 post, exports from Vietnam will face a 20 percent tariff — down from the 46 percent that was paused in April — or a 40 percent tariff if they originated in a different country. In exchange, Vietnam “will ‘OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,’ meaning that, we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff,” the president wrote.
That sent shock waves through Vietnam because their negotiators had not, in fact, agreed to the 20 percent rate; they believed the tariff rate would be around 11 percent, according to the four people. Trump disregarded that figure in his phone call with Vietnamese General Secretary Lâm — who had not been part of the initial tariff negotiations — and instead declared the U.S. would impose a tariff nearly twice as high.
Some on the U.S. side were surprised, too, including outside groups who’d been tracking the talks, according to one Washington-based lobbyist who works with Vietnam and other Asian governments.
“Trump sandbagged everybody,” said the lobbyist. They described the Vietnamese government’s reaction as “surprise, as well as disappointment and anger.”
A White House aide, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, disputed that characterization, saying the Vietnamese government was aware of the top-line tariff rates ahead of the call.
