HONG KONG — U.S. President Donald Trump’s hefty tariff on imports transshipped through Vietnam puts China back in the crosshairs, analysts say, injecting fresh uncertainty into a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers.
In a preliminary trade deal with Vietnam this week, Trump said the U.S. will impose a 20% tariff on all goods from the Southeast Asian country but 40% on all “transshipping.” In return, Vietnam’s imports from the U.S. — which totaled merely $13 billion last year, versus $142 billion in exports — will face zero tariff.
