Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called on a US business group to continue supporting his country's attempt to secure a final tariff agreement with the Trump administration after the two countries basically reached a consensus on the deal's framework, local media reported.
Chinh made the request during a Friday meeting in Hanoi with the U.S.-Asean Business Council, The Investor website reported, citing the Vietnamese government's news portal. The group represents companies such as Apple Inc., Boeing Co. and Amazon.com Inc., according to its website.
Leaders of the Southeast Asian nation were caught off guard by President Donald Trump's announcement last week that they had agreed to a 20% tariff, Bloomberg News reported. Vietnam seeks to lower the rate, people familiar with the matter said.
Vietnam, which last year had the world's third-biggest trade surplus with the US, was the second country after the UK with which Trump announced a trade agreement. The US president has been issuing tariff letters to dozens of trading partners since then, slapping on duties as high as 50% ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline.
Chinh said the two countries had basically reached a consensus on the deal's framework, but he called on the US business group to help Vietnam obtain a reasonable and detailed tariff agreement for individual products and for some groups of goods, The Investor reported.
The prime minister urged council representatives to oppose the use of trade defense measures against Vietnamese exports and actions that would undermine bilateral ties between the two countries, according to the report. He also asked companies to push the US to recognize Vietnam as a market economy.
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