President Donald Trump said Friday that Vietnam had shown willingness to eliminate its own tariffs to avoid new U.S. levies, which sent shares of some apparel firms surging.
In a social media post, Trump said Vietnamese leader To Lam told him that Vietnam “wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S.” and that the two leaders would meet in the “near future.” The post followed Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of steep tariffs against many of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, including a 46% tariff on Vietnam. The announcement has prompted a deep selloff in the stock market and retaliation from China, which announced its own 34% tariff on U.S. goods on Friday.
Many companies, especially in apparel and footwear, have shifted production to Vietnam over the past several years as a hedge against a trade war between the U.S. and China. Following Trump’s post, shares of Nike, Skechers and Lululemon spiked and were each trading up 4% on Friday afternoon. Tech firms including Apple and Meta Platforms have also shifted some of their hardware production to Vietnam, but remain much more exposed to China than apparel and footwear makers. Apple shares were down 6% on Friday.