US top diplomat Rubio urges Vietnam to address trade imbalance

WASHINGTON - New US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call on Jan 24 with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son in which he urged Vietnam to address trade imbalances and discussed shared concerns about China.

In the call, the first between the two top diplomats under the new administration of US President Donald Trump, the two hailed the 30th anniversary of US-Vietnam relations and progress made under a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership the countries agreed in 2023, a State Department statement said.

“The Secretary also discussed regional concerns to include China’s aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea,” it said.

While praising the two countries’ economic cooperation, Mr Rubio “encouraged Vietnam to address trade imbalances”, it said.

The US trade deficit with Vietnam exceeded US$110 billion (S$148 billion) in the first 11 months of 2024, US figures released in January show, as exports from the South-east Asian industrial hub grew amid a record fall of its currency against the dollar.

Although Vietnam has become an important US security partner, the large trade gap is seen by analysts as a major risk for the export-reliant nation amid threats from Mr Trump of across-the-board tariffs on US imports.

The US data from January showed a nearly 18 per cent rise in the US deficit with Vietnam compared with the same period the previous year. It confirmed the Communist-run country has the fourth-highest commercial surplus with the US, topped only by China, the European Union and Mexico.

Mr Trump ended his first term in the White House with

Treasury declarations of Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators

over their market interventions to weaken the value of their currencies.

Vietnam, which counts the US as its biggest market, is home to big export-focused industrial operations of US multinationals such as Apple, Google, Nike and Intel. REUTERS