China’s Xi urges stronger trade ties with Vietnam amid US tariff tensions.

China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday called for stronger ties with Vietnam on trade and supply chains amid disruptions caused by U.S. tariffs, as he kicked off a three-nation trip to Southeast Asia in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

The visit, planned for weeks, comes as Beijing faces 145% U.S. duties, while Vietnam is negotiating a reduction of threatened U.S. tariffs of 46% that would otherwise apply in July after a global moratorium expires.

“There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and protectionism has no way out,” Xi said in an article in Nhandan, the newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, posted ahead of his arrival on Monday.

“The two sides should strengthen cooperation in production and supply chains,” he said, urging more trade and stronger ties with Hanoi on artificial intelligence and the green economy as well.

Under pressure from Washington, Vietnam is tightening controls on some trade with China to make sure goods exported to the United States with a “Made in Vietnam” label have sufficient added value in the country to justify that.

Vietnam is a major industrial and assembling hub in Southeast Asia. It imports most of its goods from China while the United States is its main export market. The country is a crucial source of electronics, shoes and apparel for the United States.

In the first three months of this year Hanoi imported goods worth about $30 billion from Beijing while its exports to Washington amounted to $31.4 billion, Vietnam’s customs data show, confirming a long-term trend in which imports from China closely match the value and swings of exports to Washington.

Source: Globalbankingandfinance