New Delhi: In the backdrop of China battling a 145% tariff threat from Donald Trump’s USA, its president Xi Jinping on April 14 signed a number of deals with Vietnam covering supply chain and production among other sectors.Reuters has reported that while it has seen footage of the documents – signed as Xi visited Hanoi – details of the agreements were not disclosed and “it was unclear if they involve financial commitments.”China is Vietnam’s largest partner in trade.Before Trump’s sudden pause, the US had announced a 46% tariff on this key manufacturing country. This was the highest among Southeast Asia’s six largest economies. Many global giants have their factories in Vietnam, a fact which has led the country into a spell of uncertainty.“Vietnam’s overall [cost] advantage has become very slim now,” Xie Qing, a factory property realtor in Bac Ninh, told Rest of World. “The pessimism is spreading,” he added.Vietnam’s deputy prime minister Bui Thanh Son has said over the weekend that the two communist countries were expecting to sign about 40 cooperation deals during Xi’s visit.In an editorial jointly published in Vietnamese and Chinese official media, Xi wrote, “There are no winners in a trade war, or a tariff war.”The Associated Press reported him as having said, “Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
