Trump hails deals worth ‘billions’ with Vietnam

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump talked trade with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during a White House visit on Wednesday and welcomed the signing of business deals worth billions of dollars and the jobs they would create.

The US Commerce Department announced 13 new transactions with Vietnam worth US$8bil, including US$3bil worth of US-produced content that would support more than 23,000 American jobs.

These include deals for General Electric Co worth US$5.58bil for power generation, aircraft engines and services, its largest-ever combined sale in Vietnam.

Caterpillar Inc and its dealer in Vietnam also agreed to provide generator management technology for more than 100 generators in Vietnam, the company said.

“They (Vietnam) just made a very large order in the United States – and we appreciate that – for many billions of dollars, which means jobs for the United States and great, great equipment for Vietnam,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Commerce Department estimate of the deals was considerably less than the US$15bil figure given by Phuc during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, adding that most of the total involved the import of US equipment.

Communist Vietnam has gone from being a Cold War enemy to an important partner for the United States in the Asia-Pacific, where both countries share concerns about China’s rising power.

Phuc told Trump the relationship had undergone “significant upheavals in history” but that the two countries were now “comprehensive partners.” Phuc’s meeting with Trump makes him the first SouthEast Asian leader to visit the White House under the new administration.

However, while Hanoi and Washington have stepped up security cooperation in recent years, trade has become a potential irritant, with a deficit widening steadily in Vietnam’s favour, reaching US$32bil last year, compared with US$7bil a decade earlier.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said it was important to shrink the US trade deficit with Vietnam but noted that the South-East Asian country of 80 million people was the fastest-growing market for US exports, rising 77% since 2014 to US$4.4bil.

“The growth of the middle class and the increasing purchasing power in Vietnam are further incentives to strengthening our long-term trade and investment relationship,” Ross said.

Trump, who has had strong words for countries with large trade surpluses with the United States, said he would be discussing trade with Phuc, as well as North Korea.

Washington has been seeking support to pressure North Korea to drop its nuclear and missile programmes, which have become an increasing threat to the United States. Hanoi has said it shares concerns about North Korea.

In his Heritage speech, Phuc welcomed Trump’s plans to attend the November Apec summit in Hanoi. He called it a sign of US commit- ment to the region and “an important occasion for the United States to assert its positive role.”

In a reference to somewhat warmer ties between Washington and Beijing under Trump, who has been courting China’s support on North Korea, Phuc said Vietnam welcomed good relations between the two powers, but hoped these would serve the interest of other nations in the region too.

He urged Washington and Beijing “to act with full transparency and in a responsible manner so as not to impact negatively the region and relations among other nations.”

Vietnam’s government said on its website Trump and Phuc had agreed to promote defense ties and discussed the possibility of US vessels, including aircraft carriers, visiting Vietnamese ports.

It said they had expressed concern about the South China Sea, where Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei are involved in maritime disputes with China, which claims nearly all the strategic waterway. Taiwan also stakes a claim. — Reuters