Vietnam Won the U.S.-China Trade War But Is Now in Trouble Itself
The country is benefiting so much from the impasse that it’s at risk of being hit with punitive American duties.
Bau Bang in Binh Duong province is one of several industrial parks in Vietnam reporting a surge of interest from foreign manufacturers.
Photographer: Yen Duong/BloombergU.S. President Trump’s trade war has Peter Chang scrambling. Sixty components makers that supply Foxconn Technology Group and Samsung Electronics Co. have come knocking at his industrial park northeast of Hanoi in the past three months. They’re looking to skirt U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. “They need to get into Vietnam now—immediately,” says Chang, deputy general director of Shun Far Land Development Co., which operates the Thuan Thanh II Industrial Park, about a 45-minute drive from Hanoi. “We have our building team waiting.”
Chang is hastily negotiating with neighboring landowners to convert rice fields into assembly lines to take advantage of the sudden boom in business. He realizes, though, that it may not last. Even as foreign companies are lining up at Vietnam’s industrial parks, the Trump administration is increasing pressure on the country’s communist leaders to curb its growing trade surplus with the U.S.