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Opinion | Vietnam and America: foes on paper, friends out of necessity
- Donald Trump has accused Vietnam of treating America ‘even worse’ than China does on trade, and has imposed heavy duties on its steel imports
- But tough rhetoric from Washington often belies the deepening convergence of their strategic interests as Beijing shakes up the region’s established order
Reading Time:4 minutes
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“Almost the single worst abuser of everybody.”
This was how US President Donald Trump described Vietnam’s approach to trade in an interview in June.
His damning verdict was followed a few days later by an announcement from the US Department of Commerce that it would be imposing duties of up to 456 per cent on Vietnamese steel imports.
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Hanoi has been seen as the biggest winner from Trump’s trade war with China, but is now also on the receiving end of a hardening approach from Washington. The change poses a big danger for Vietnam as the country is a trade-dependent economy and the US is its largest export market. Trump has also abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed agreement between 12 nations from which Vietnam stood to be one of the main winners.
But despite these troubles, ties remain tight between the two former cold war foes as the two rediscover the importance of their relationship against the backdrop of an increasingly assertive China.
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