HANOI, July 23 (Reuters) – Vietnam’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that it remained committed to bringing trade negotiations with the United States to a conclusion, urging Washington to wrap up its Section 301 investigation into the southeast Asian country.
The appeal came after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit in Manila, where the two sides discussed ways to strengthen ties and rebalance trade.
It follows more than a year of talks between Hanoi and its largest export market, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s temporary 10% global tariff on goods shipped from Vietnam scheduled to expire on Friday.
Vietnam is facing three separate Trump administration probes targeting Hanoi for allegedly distorting trade through excess capacity, intellectual property violations, and the use of goods produced by forced labour.
Vietnam called for the United States to conclude the Section 301 investigation with a decision that fully recognises Vietnam’s efforts, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Section 301 of U.S. trade law is a provision that authorises investigations into alleged unfair trade practices.
Trung said Vietnam is willing to facilitate U.S. firms in expanding their investment and business activities in the country.
The U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam reached $75.3 billion in the first half of this year, an annual increase of 21%, Vietnam’s government data showed.
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by David Stanway)
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