White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said Monday that an offer by Vietnam to eliminate tariffs on U.S. imports would not be enough for the administration to lift its new levies announced last week.
“Let’s take Vietnam. When they come to us and say ‘we’ll go to zero tariffs,’ that means nothing to us because it’s the nontariff cheating that matters,” Navarro said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The examples of nontariff “cheating” cited by Navarro included Chinese products being routed through Vietnam, intellectual property theft and a value-added tax.
The comments from Navarro come after President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Friday that To Lam, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, had offered to cut tariffs on U.S. products to zero. Later in the Monday interview, Navarro revised his statement to say that the offer of zero tariffs would be a “small first start.”
Trump announced widespread tariffs last week that sparked a sharp sell-off in the stock market. Wall Street is watching closely for news about potential negotiations that could lead to those tariffs being reduced.
Vietnam is a manufacturing hub for many companies that sell products in the U.S., including apparel retailers like Nike. The Trump administration said it would apply a 46% levy to imports from that market. The VanEck Vietnam ETF (VNM) fell 10% on Thursday after the tariffs were announced.
A value-added tax is a system used by many countries around the world and is in some ways similar to sales taxes in the U.S. The Trump administration’s argument that the tax should count as a trade barrier is not widely accepted.
“We have tried at the World Trade Organization since the 1970s to get VAT-tax relief, and they’ve told us no every single time,” Navarro said Monday.
The trade advisor also said Monday that the value-added tax would be an issue in any negotiations around tariffs with the European Union.
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