By Francesco Guarascio
HANOI (Reuters) -America is pushing Vietnam in tariff talks to scale back using Chinese language tech in units which might be assembled within the nation earlier than being exported to America, three folks briefed on the matter stated.
Vietnam is residence to massive manufacturing operations of tech companies similar to Apple and Samsung, which frequently depend on elements made in China. Meta and Google even have contractors in Vietnam that produce items similar to digital actuality headsets and smartphones.
The Southeast Asian nation has been organising conferences with native companies to spice up the provision of Vietnamese components, with companies exhibiting willingness to cooperate but in addition warning they would want time and know-how to take action, in keeping with one individual with data of the discussions.
The Trump administration has threatened Vietnam with crippling tariffs of 46% which might considerably restrict entry for Vietnam-made items to their predominant market and upend the Communist-run nation’s export-oriented development mannequin.
Vietnam has been requested “to scale back its dependency on Chinese language high-tech,” stated one individual conversant in the discussions. “That’s a part of the restructuring of provide chains and would in flip scale back U.S. dependency on Chinese language elements,” the individual added.
The last word goal is to hurry up U.S. decoupling from Chinese language high-tech whereas growing Vietnam’s industrial capability, a second individual stated, citing digital actuality units for instance of Vietnam-assembled merchandise which might be too depending on Chinese language know-how.
All sources declined to be recognized because the discussions had been confidential. Reuters was not capable of be taught if the U.S. has proposed numerical targets similar to caps on Chinese language content material for “Made in Vietnam” items or completely different tariff charges based mostly on the quantity of Chinese language content material.
Apple, Samsung, Meta and Google didn’t reply to Reuters requests for remark.
Because the U.S.-imposed deadline of July 8 nears earlier than the tariffs take impact, the timing and scope of a attainable deal stay unclear.
All sources confused that whereas the U.S. has made broader requests for Vietnam to scale back its reliance on China, tackling the difficulty of Chinese language high-tech content material in exports was a key precedence.
Final yr, China exported round $44 billion of tech similar to electronics elements, computer systems and telephones to Vietnam, about 30% of its complete exports to the nation. Vietnam shipped $33 billion of tech items to the USA or 28% of the U.S.-bound exports. Each flows are on the rise this yr, in keeping with Vietnam’s customs knowledge.
