According to the Government Newspaper , on the morning of April 3, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a meeting of the Government Standing Committee with ministries and branches to assess the situation and discuss immediate and long-term solutions after the US announced reciprocal tariffs on goods from many countries, including Vietnam.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the current situation shows that trade competition is becoming more fierce, more complicated, and more unpredictable. Over the past time, Vietnam has made great efforts to implement synchronous and comprehensive solutions in politics, diplomacy, economy, and people-to-people exchange to cope with the situation.

According to the Prime Minister, the US's imposition of tariffs is not in line with the good relations between the two countries, the wishes of the people on both sides, and Vietnam's efforts in recent times.

However, this is also an opportunity to affirm the nation's mettle and strength; an opportunity to restructure the economy towards rapid but sustainable development, greening, digitalization, based on science and technology, innovation; promote the construction of an independent, self-reliant economy associated with deep, substantive and effective international integration; promote market expansion, diversification of markets, products, and supply chains; promote localization; promote exploitation of domestic markets and resources.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the GDP growth target of 8% or more in 2025 remains unchanged.

To achieve this goal, the Prime Minister requested ministries and branches to be calm, courageous, have proactive, flexible, timely and effective responses to all developments to continue to overcome difficulties, obstacles and external shocks as they have done in recent years in the context of the pandemic, conflicts in many places around the world, and supply chain disruptions...

In addition, the Prime Minister requested the immediate establishment of a rapid response team on this issue headed by Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son; assigned Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc to chair and direct ministries and branches to listen to opinions from businesses, including large export enterprises.

Last night, US President Donald Trump announced import tariffs on dozens of economies. Of these, Vietnam will be subject to a 46% tariff, placing it among the countries with the highest tariffs along with China, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

Mr. Trump also said that he would apply a 10% import tax on all imports into the United States, starting April 5. That means all countries and territories will be subject to this common 10% import tax. Then, from April 9, the country's largest trading partners will be subject to a higher reciprocal tax, according to the table Mr. Trump announced.

Businesses are concerned that their goods will be severely affected when the US imposes a reciprocal tax of up to 46% on Vietnam - a country with high tax rates. This will reduce the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods compared to products from other countries.

According to data from the Customs Department, in 2024, Vietnam exported goods worth 119.5 billion USD to the United States and imported 15.1 billion USD from this market.

There are 15 items with export value of over 1 billion USD. Of which, 3 groups dominate: computers and components with 23.2 billion USD (19.4%), machinery and equipment with 22 billion USD (18.5%) and textiles with 16.2 billion (13.5%).

The next three items also have relatively large values ​​compared to the rest, including phones at 9.8 billion USD, wood at 9 billion USD and footwear at 8.3 billion USD.

Besides, agricultural products also made important contributions. Cashew nuts reached a value of 1.15 billion USD, coffee recorded 322.83 million USD, while seafood and vegetables reached 1.83 billion USD and 360.41 million USD respectively.

Experts quickly calculated that the 46% tax rate that the US imposed on imported goods from Vietnam is equivalent to more than 54 billion USD, equivalent to 10% of GDP.

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/my-ap-thue-46-thu-tuong-khang-dinh-khong-thay-doi-muc-tieu-gdp-ar935483.html