Vietnam and the United States agreed to start negotiations on a reciprocal trade agreement, Hanoi said on Thursday, hours after Washington delayed imposing an enormous tariff on the Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse. The United States was Vietnam’s biggest export market in the first three months of the year, but President Donald Trump hit it with a 46 percent duty as part of a global trade blitz announced last week. Trump paused the stiff new tariffs on Wednesday and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc suggested the two countries “should soon negotiate a bilateral trade agreement… to promote stable and mutually beneficial economic and trade relations”, according to a statement on the government news portal.
