US Tariffs Kick Off Negotiations as Vietnam Pledges to Reduce Tariffs on US to Zero

The Trump administration levied 46 percent tariffs on Vietnamese goods this week.

President Donald Trump gestures to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on April 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Friday signaled that negotiations have started over a broad swath of tariffs he announced this week, indicating that at least one country will reduce its tariffs on U.S. imports “down to zero.”

“Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future,” Trump wrote in a post on social media platform Truth Social on Friday.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc’s office said in a statement on Friday that Vietnam will continue to push for more purchases coming from the United States and will hold meetings on how to handle the new U.S. tariffs.

The country also “proposed that the U.S. side temporarily postpone the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on Vietnamese goods for 1–3 months to negotiate, in the spirit of ensuring fairness and mutual benefit,” the statement said, according to an English translation.

It requested that Vietnamese businesses exporting to the United States maintain their prices while awaiting bilateral negotiations between the United States and Vietnam. Businesses are advised to use “appropriate and effective solutions” to preserve the status quo, it said.

Regarding Trump’s comment on Truth Social, Vietnamese officials have not issued a public response. The Epoch Times has contacted Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

This week, Trump levied 46 percent tariffs on Vietnamese imports, while other Southeast Asian countries now face tariffs of between 32 percent and 49 percent. In comparison, the level for the European Union is 20 percent, Japan is 24 percent, and India is 27 percent.

Vietnam’s neighbor to the north, China, faces a 54 percent tariff on some goods. On Friday, the Chinese regime announced it would issue retaliatory tariffs of 34 percent on U.S. imports.

Trump spoke to reporters on Air Force One on Thursday and signaled that he is open to negotiating with countries over the recently announced tariffs. He said the new duties “give us great power to negotiate.”

“Every country has called us,“ the president said, referring to the international response to the tariffs, adding that the new levies put the United States ”in the driver’s seat.”

When asked if he’s open to making deals, Trump said: “It depends. If somebody said that we’re going to give you something that’s so phenomenal, as long as they’re giving us something, that’s good,” hinting at trade-offs.

The president cited TikTok as an example.

“China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariff?'” Trump told reporters.

Also on Thursday, White House trade aide Peter Navarro told Fox News that the sweeping tariffs announced on Wednesday are “not a negotiation” but “a national emergency associated with chronic and massive trade deficits that are brought about by higher tariffs and higher non-tariff barriers.”

Those non-tariff barriers include currency manipulation, VAT tax distortions, export subsidies, dumping, counterfeiting, and piracy, as well as IP theft, he said.

The resulting trade deficits ultimately “take our jobs, take our factories,” and “result in massive transfers of wealth into foreign hands that jeopardize our manufacturing base and defense industrial base,” Navarro said.

Trump’s second son, Eric Trump, suggested that countries that want to negotiate with Trump on tariffs should do so quickly.

“I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with [Trump]. The first to negotiate will win ... the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life,” he wrote on April 3 in a post on social media platform X.

Amid the tariffs news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped some 1,600 points on Thursday. By midday on Friday, it shed more than 1,200 points.