SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Here's a bit of a trade news roundup. President Trump says he's ready to put tariffs of more than 10% on at least a hundred smaller countries. As the president talked with reporters, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said most of them would be in Africa and the Caribbean. Now, that happened the same day the president said, without offering many details, that he'd reached a trade deal with Indonesia. And two weeks ago, Trump posted online about a trade deal with Vietnam. According to that post, Washington would charge a 20% import tax on all Vietnamese exports. There would also be a 40% tariff on transshipments. Those are goods made somewhere else but sent to the U.S. through Vietnam. But now, two weeks later, exporters in Vietnam tell NPR they're still confused by the agreement. To find out why, we called reporter Nga Pham in Hanoi.
NGA PHAM: Well, initially, there was some sigh of relief. But it was quickly followed by confusion because no details of this supposed trade deal has been released by either side, and the Vietnamese side has not acknowledged the tariffs mentioned by Trump in his post on social media. Vietnam's state media did report on the phone call between the two leaders, but they simply stated that a, quote, "favorable agreement" had been reached. How favorable? Nobody knows. We reached out to Vietnam's trade authorities for clarification, but we have not heard from them. And NPR also asked a White House official this week, who said that, in fact, nothing had been signed yet. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deal publicly, said Washington plans to release more details when available. But we just don't know when.
MCCAMMON: So lots of questions. What do Vietnamese businesses make of this lack of clarity coming from the Trump administration?
PHAM: Well, I think it's fair to say that they are just trying to navigate all this uncertainty right now. The U.S. is Vietnam's biggest export market. About 30% of Vietnam's exports go there, and there are tens of thousands of companies here that make products specifically for consumers in the U.S. So any shift in U.S. trade policy is a big deal. Earlier, I spoke to Le Nguyen Anh Tuan, who manages a furniture company in Ho Chi Minh City. They supply American customers, like the discount department store TJ Maxx.
LE NGUYEN ANH TUAN: (Speaking Vietnamese).
PHAM: Tuan told me production has clearly slowed down, by as much as 30%. Some of his customers have paused on new orders while they wait to see what happens with the tariffs. Others, mostly store owners who can't wait, are still ordering, but only the essentials.
MCCAMMON: So the timing is a big question. What other concerns are people in Vietnam thinking about when it comes to what a deal with the U.S. might mean?
PHAM: One big worry is that Vietnamese products might be subject to higher tariffs if they are labeled as transshipments. Like you explained earlier, it's goods manufactured in a third country like China but shipped to the U.S. via Vietnam. Because there's still no details, people have been guessing how this is going to be enforced. There's also been some debate about whether negotiators in Vietnam made too many concessions because, according to President Trump's social media post, Vietnam would give the U.S. total access to the market at zero tariff. But in return, Vietnam still has not been recognized by the U.S. as a market economy.
MCCAMMON: That's journalist Nga Pham bringing us a perspective from Vietnam. Thank you so much.
PHAM: Thank you for having me.
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