In a stunning escalation of trade measures, President Donald Trump has announced a massive 46% reciprocal tariff on imports from Vietnam, the highest among all targeted nations in his sweeping executive order unveiled Wednesday. This move is part of Trump’s broader reciprocal tariff campaign designed to match or partially match the tariff levels imposed by other countries on American goods.
“We’re charging them half of what they charge us,” Trump declared during his Rose Garden address. “Vietnam has been one of the worst offenders.”
The new policy slaps a 46% duty on all imports from Vietnam, justifying it by pointing to high Vietnamese barriers on US goods—particularly in electronics, footwear, textiles, and food products.
Vietnam’s key exports to the United States that will be hit:
- Footwear and apparel
- Consumer electronics
- Furniture
- Seafood and agricultural products
- Steel and machinery components
The tariff could severely affect Vietnam’s booming export-driven economy, which has seen explosive growth in recent years, in part by filling the supply chain vacuum left by US-China tensions. Vietnamese exports to the US topped $114 billion in 2023, according to US trade data, with the US accounting for over a quarter of Vietnam’s total exports.
This tariff—the highest among all nations listed—comes amid growing concern in Washington that Vietnam has become a backdoor route for Chinese goods to enter the US tariff-free, a charge Vietnamese officials have consistently denied.
Tariffs imposed on other nations include:
- China – 34%
- EU – 20%
- Japan – 24%
- India – 26%
- South Korea – 25%
- Thailand – 36%
- Bangladesh – 37%
- Cambodia – 49%
- UK – 10%
- Brazil – 10%
- Singapore – 10%
- Philippines – 17%
- Sri Lanka – 44%
- And a baseline 10% tariff on all other countries not individually listed.
President Trump stated the tariffs will be implemented starting Thursday, April 4 at 12:01 a.m. EDT, and added that the United States will no longer allow “foreign scavengers to tear apart the American dream.”
Markets and trade experts are now bracing for retaliatory measures from impacted nations, particularly those like Vietnam that are heavily reliant on US markets.
