Huge U.S. Deficit Caused Trump To Impose Higher Tariffs On Vietnam

President Trump targeted Vietnam with some of the highest tariffs of any country on his April “Liberation Day.”

Vietnam’s trade surplus with the U.S. ballooned to over $123 billion last year.

That’s at least partly because he and his top advisers have portrayed Vietnam as a country that is allegedly “ripping off” the U.S., Brett LoGiurato reported for Yahoo Finance.

Vietnam has become the U.S.’s 10th-largest trade partner, according to U.S. Census data, and the seventh-largest source of imports, sending goods worth over $130 billion.

It houses factories for some of the biggest U.S.-based apparel makers, including Nike and Lululemon. Vietnam became a destination for companies seeking to diversify manufacturing as U.S.-China tensions escalated over the past decade.

Vietnam’s trade surplus with the U.S. ballooned to over $123 billion last year.

This year’s U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam stood at over $50 billion through just April, as companies rushed to shift more operations out of China, Grace O’Donnell also reported for Yahoo Finance.