As the United States intensifies efforts to reduce trade with China by hiking tariffs, it has greatly boosted imports from Vietnam, which relies on Chinese input for much of its exports, data shows.
The surge in China-Vietnam-U.S. trade has vastly widened trade imbalances, with the Southeast Asian country last year posting a surplus with Washington close to $105 billion — 2.5 times bigger than in 2018, when the Trump administration first put heavy tariffs on Chinese goods.
Vietnam now has the fourth-highest trade surplus with the United States, lower only than China, Mexico and the European Union.