Trans-Pacific View | Economy | Southeast Asia

Reciprocal Trade Deal With the US Close to Completion, Vietnamese Media Reports

Hanoi’s top leader To Lam met yesterday with U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer in New York, where he is set to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

Vietnam’s government says that a trade deal with the United States could be signed soon, following positive negotiations between the country’s top leader To Lam and U.S. officials this week.

To Lam, who serves as president and chief of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), met yesterday with U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer in New York, where he is scheduled to attend the ​81st Session of the U.N. General Assembly.

According to a state media report, Greer yesterday hailed the “substantial progress” in the trade talks, adding that negotiators from both sides were “very close to reaching the final outcome.”

In turn, Lam expressed his desire “to work with President Donald Trump’s administration to continue advancing bilateral relations in a stable, substantive, effective, and sustainable manner,” the report stated. Lam said that Vietnam has in recent years “made efforts to substantively promote cooperation and purchase goods from the U.S. in order to boost bilateral trade in a more balanced direction.” He also “called on the U.S. to take a comprehensive approach to outstanding trade issues,” including a number of investigations that Washington has initiated under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974.

Vietnam is currently the subject of a number of Section 301 investigations. It was among 60 nations that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) threatened in June with tariffs of 10-12.5 percent due to their alleged failures to take action on forced labor. It is also the subject of separate Section 301 probes into alleged excess manufacturing capacity and intellectual property rights.

These investigations have been interpreted as a........

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