The announcement came after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said last month that Hanoi was reviewing levies to encourage increased imports from the US.

Vietnam has announced import tariff cuts on goods including LNG, cars, and ethanol in an effort to reduce its trade surplus with the United States and mitigate potential tariffs from President Trump.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative released a report Monday highlighting foreign trade barriers that could influence tariffs the president puts into effect this week.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Saturday that Vietnam may buy as many as 50 planes from Embraer, the Brazilian planemaker, and that another Brazilian company may invest $100 million in a meat-processing plant in the Asian country, as he prepared to conclude his state visit to Hanoi, where he met President Luong Cuong.

China's military on Tuesday said it had begun joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence", calling Taiwan's President Lai Ching-Te a "parasite".

This news is important considering the risk of US tariffs on Vietnam, which has one of the largest trade surpluses with Washington.

Vietnam is widely expected to outperform its ASEAN peers in 2025. International organisations and global banks have predicted that GDP growth will fall within the 6.5-7 per cent range, boosted by continued growth of export manufacturing,

Lula's second visit to Vietnam comes as Hanoi, under pressure from the Trump administration to reduce its large trade surplus ... crops at a time when the world's two biggest coffee producers ...