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Will ‘China plus one’ put Vietnam in Donald Trump’s trade cross hairs?
Hanoi could become a victim of its own success after building up a huge trade surplus with the US.
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A Vietnamese newspaper on Nov 7 with coverage of Donald Trump’s re-election.
PHOTO: AFP
A. Anantha Lakshmi
Vietnam was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Donald Trump’s trade war with China during his first term in office. But Hanoi could become a victim of its own good fortune, business groups and analysts have warned, if the President-elect follows through on threats of blanket tariffs when he returns to the White House.
Vietnam has racked up the fourth-largest trade surplus with the US in recent years – trailing China, Mexico and the European Union – as global manufacturers shifted factories away from China to avoid the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
