On July 2nd, the United States and Vietnam reached an agreement on tariff issues. The content of the agreement is that the US will impose a 20% tariff on Vietnam, and in addition, the US will also impose a 40% tariff on any goods that are transshipped.

In response to the US lowering its tariffs from 46% to 20%, Vietnam will implement zero tariffs on the US, allowing the US to fully enter their trade market.

Evidently, this agreement between the US and Vietnam is clearly an unequal one. Essentially, this agreement is the US extorting Vietnam with high tariffs, and Vietnam accepted the US's trade bullying in order to ensure exports to the US market.

From Vietnam's perspective, Vietnam indeed lacks the leverage to counter the US. Currently, Vietnam is the third largest trade surplus country for the US and also Vietnam's largest export market. According to data from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Vietnam's total goods exports in 2024 amounted to $405.53 billion, of which exports to the US were $119.6 billion, accounting for approximately 29.5% of Vietnam's exports.

According to official US statistical data, Vietnam's exports to the US in 2024 reached about $136.5 billion, and if calculated based on this data, it accounts for about 33.66%. Obviously, the US has taken advantage of Vietnam.

However, what we did not expect was that Vietnam compromising with the US is one thing, but the agreement between Vietnam and the US clearly harms our interests.

Indeed, as soon as the US-Vietnam agreement was reached, the Wall Street Journal in the US immediately stated that the high 40% tariff on goods transshipped to the US indicates that targeting goods transshipment—especially those originating from China—is a top priority in the US negotiations with Vietnam.

Evidently, despite our clear warning that no country should damage our interests when reaching agreements with the US, Vietnam clearly cooperated with the US to harm our interests. Vietnam did not heed our warnings.

In fact, our transshipment trade with Vietnam is in Vietnam's interest. By doing so, Vietnam not only harmed its own interests, but also our interests.

Our companies conduct transshipment trade mainly through two models. The first is that goods are first transported from China to Vietnam, then assembled, stored, sorted, packaged, and finally transported to the consumer country.

The second is that our companies directly sell goods to Vietnamese companies or agents, who then rebrand and declare the goods in Vietnam before shipping them to the consumer country.

Whether it is the first or the second transshipment model, Vietnam collects fiscal revenue by imposing tariffs, value-added taxes, warehouse fees, and other taxes on goods in transshipment trade. Transshipment trade also promotes the development of local services and manufacturing industries in Vietnam.

Certainly, we are still unclear about the specific details of the transshipment trade between the US and Vietnam. We do not know how the US defines transshipment trade, nor do we know the extent to which Vietnam will cooperate with the US. However, the way Vietnam reached the agreement actually sets a bad precedent.

That is, Japan, Europe, and other countries might follow Vietnam's example and reach agreements with the US that harm our interests. Therefore, we should take action to discipline Vietnam.

(End of article)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7522683842407285298/

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