Washington’s steep tariffs on Vietnam could cost the country as much as $25 billion in lost exports, exposing major vulnerabilities in Southeast Asia’s export-reliant economies that could lead them to turn to China to buffer against US levies.
Though most Vietnamese goods exports are produced in factories run by American firms, President Donald Trump still imposed a 20% duty on them, which could cut US-bound trade by almost a fifth, a UN report showed. Last year, Vietnam was the world’s sixth-largest exporter to the US.
The figures come as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gets ready to meet this week to discuss how to boost regional trade, and prepare a unified response to the US, with experts warning ASEAN nations may be pivoting toward Beijing.