July 11, 2025

  

 

US President Donald Trump recently announced on social media that the United States and Vietnam have reached a trade agreement, just ahead of the deadline for an increase in US "reciprocal" tariffs.

 

Under that plan, most goods imported from Vietnam would have been subject to a 46% tariff, rather than the 10% baseline rate in place since April.

 

No text or specific details of the deal have been released, but President Trump stated that goods arriving from Vietnam will be tariffed at 20% unless they are products made elsewhere (including China) that are transhipping Vietnam. Transhipped products will be subject to a 40% tariff rate.

 

President Trump also said Vietnam will further open its market to imports of US products. This presumably includes US pork and pork variety meat, which currently face formidable obstacles in Vietnam.

 

In mid-2022, Vietnam temporarily reduced its most-favoured-nation tariff rate on frozen pork from 15% to 10%, providing modest relief for US pork. But even with this reduction, US pork is still tariffed at a significantly higher rate than most suppliers. Vietnam's imports from Russia – Vietnam's largest single-country pork supplier – are duty-free, while pork from Canada and most other Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) countries also enter Vietnam at zero duty. Frozen pork from the European Union is currently tariffed at 3.7% and will be phased to zero by 2027. US pork variety meat faces a tariff of 8%, compared to zero for CPTPP suppliers and Russia, and just 3.2% for variety meat from the EU.

 

While 10% for US pork cuts and 8% for variety meat may not – on the surface – seem like high tariff rates, Vietnam is a very price-sensitive market. One contributing factor is that Vietnam is uniquely positioned as a preferred destination for pork from countries where African swine fever is present. For example, many importing countries do not accept any pork from Russia, which is Vietnam's largest supplier, or from Germany (second largest), Poland and other EU member states with ASF cases.

 

"These factors make it absolutely essential that US pork and pork variety meat gain duty-free access to Vietnam," said Dan Halstrom, president and CEO of the US Meat Export Federation. "However, tariff relief alone won't allow US exports to reach their full potential. Several non-tariff barriers must also be eliminated."

 

In May 2024, due to a shift in Vietnam's Department of Animal Husbandry (DAH), all new red meat facility registrations came to a halt. Without warning, DAH began requiring additional, business-sensitive information from establishments, such as a full list of all suppliers and full copies of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans. Providing such information is not possible, therefore, the US industry has no realistic path for new establishments to gain approval.

 

Vietnam maintains ongoing restrictions on "white offal" through a combination of import permit and product registration requirements, even though the market is officially open to these products. This limits the US industry's ability to capitalise on Vietnam's need for pork variety meat.

 

Last year, Vietnam also published a regulation on microbiological testing that includes a zero-tolerance standard for salmonella spp. To date, the regulation has not had a meaningful impact on trade, but it represents a potential barrier for US pork. Vietnam recently revised this regulation but despite feedback from trading partners and industry stakeholders, the zero-tolerance policy for Salmonella was maintained. Rather than ease this standard, the amended regulation only reduces the sampling frequency once a history of compliance is established.

 

If tariffs are eliminated on US pork and pork variety meat and non-tariff barriers are sufficiently addressed, US Meat Export Federation projects that US exports to Vietnam could reach US$25 million toUS $30 million annually in the near term. For perspective, US pork exports to Vietnam were valued at just US$9.3 million last year, a small fraction of the roughly $500 million in reported exports to Vietnam. Through May 2025, US export value was less than US$3 million – nearly 50% below last year's pace.

 

-        US Meat Export Federation / National Hog Farmer