“Vietnam: A Strategic and Alluring Market for US Businesses.”

On May 22, in Washington, DC, as part of his working visit to the US, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Head of the Government Negotiating Delegation, had a working session with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation and discuss the progress of the negotiations on the Bilateral Trade Agreement between the two countries.

At the meeting, the two ministers agreed that Vietnam and the US have highly complementary economies and great potential for cooperation. Minister Nguyen Hong Dien affirmed that Vietnam has a large and stable demand for products, equipment, and services in which the US has strengths, especially in high-tech and energy fields. Vietnam is committed to promoting a transparent and healthy trade environment and is ready to strengthen coordination with the US in preventing trade fraud, origin fraud, and illegal transhipment.

With the orientation of becoming a developed country with high income by 2035, Vietnam identifies the US as one of its leading strategic partners and wishes to promote economic and trade relations towards balance, sustainability, and mutual benefit. The Minister of Industry and Trade proposed that the US work with Vietnam to resolve existing issues in economic and trade relations, soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy, and remove Vietnam from the Lists of D1 and D3, which restrict the export of high-tech products. This will bring practical benefits to both countries and improve the trade balance in a fair, harmonious, and sustainable manner.

For his part, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick appreciated Vietnam’s efforts and goodwill in negotiating the Bilateral Trade Agreement and welcomed the two countries’ enhanced cooperation in high-tech fields and those with high added value. He affirmed that Vietnam is an important and attractive market for US businesses and hoped that Vietnam would continue to facilitate US investment projects, thus expanding two-way trade, especially imports from the US.

Both sides agreed to continue promoting technical dialogues and maintaining high-level exchanges to soon achieve substantive progress in the negotiations, aiming at building a stable and long-term economic and trade cooperation framework.

Earlier, on May 21, as part of his working visit to the US, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien met and worked with Senator Ted Cruz, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Senator Steve Daines, member of the Senate Finance and Foreign Relations Committees.

At the meetings, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized Vietnam’s commitment to promoting harmonious and sustainable economic and trade cooperation, bringing practical benefits to the people and businesses of both countries. He affirmed that Vietnam always facilitates US businesses to invest and operate effectively and proposed that the US consider Vietnam as a priority trade partner in the context that the two countries have officially upgraded their relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Regarding the bilateral trade negotiation process, the Minister affirmed that Vietnam is ready to closely coordinate with the US side to reach a trade agreement based on the principles of respecting sovereignty, balancing interests, complying with international commitments, and matching each side’s development level. He also suggested that the Senators support and promote this process.

The US Senators highly appreciated the development potential of the Vietnamese market, especially in the fields of industry, energy, high technology, and digital economy. The Senators said that many large US enterprises are very interested in and closely monitoring Vietnam’s policies and investment environment, expressing their hope to expand long-term business and investment activities in this strategic market in the Asia-Pacific region.

Both sides expected that the comprehensive Vietnam-US relationship would continue to be consolidated and developed, especially as the global economy is strongly restructuring supply chains and expanding to dynamic and stable markets like Vietnam.