Vietnam was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Donald Trump’s trade war with China during his first term in office. But Hanoi could become a victim of its own good fortune, business groups and analysts have warned, if the president-elect follows through on threats of blanket tariffs when he returns to the White House.
Vietnam has racked up the fourth-largest trade surplus with the US in recent years — trailing China, Mexico and the EU — as global manufacturers shifted factories away from China to avoid the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
But that success has put Vietnam in a vulnerable position. Its economy has become heavily dependent on the US, which accounts for nearly 30 per cent of all of Vietnam’s exports.