HANOI: Vietnam said it cut import duties on a range of goods, including cars, liquefied gas and some agricultural products, with concerns escalating ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned unveiling of sweeping tariffs on “all countries”.
The announcement came after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said last month that Hanoi was reviewing levies in order to encourage increased imports from the United States.
Washington’s trade deficit with Vietnam is the third highest of any country, after China and Mexico, and there are increasing fears it could be a key target of the White House’s tariff drive, which has sent shockwaves through global markets.
“From Mar 31, 2025, certain items such as cars, wood, ethanol, frozen chicken legs, pistachios, almonds, fresh apples, cherries, raisins, etc, will be subject to a new preferential import duty rate,” a statement said late Monday (Mar 31) on the government’s official news portal.
It added that import duties on some cars will be halved and the tax rate for liquefied natural gas will drop from 5 per cent to 2 per cent.
Tariffs on frozen chicken legs will be reduced from 20 per cent to 15 per cent, the rates on unshelled pistachios will be slashed from 15 per cent to 5 per cent, and for almonds, it will drop from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.
“I believe that Vietnam is doing everything they can to soften the blow,” said Bruno Jaspaert, CEO at DEEP C Industrial Zones in Vietnam and chairman of the country’s European chamber of commerce.
“Rather than retaliate, they give, and hope to be treated in a better way than most. But the overall expectation is that there will still be tariffs,” he told AFP.
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