Vietnam’s steel sector looks likely to suffer under the tariffs US president Donald Trump launched this week. The ultimate impact of the tariff regime is still unclear, particularly as the US already moved late last year to impose tariffs on steel products from Vietnam after an investigation into whether Chinese steel companies were shipping steel through Vietnam to avoid US import tariffs.
More broadly, Vietnamese exporters were buoyed this week by the news that the country had joined 10 others in signing a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. According to Marc Djandji, head of institutional sales at Ho Chi Minh-based Rong Viet Securities, the sectors likely to benefit most from the new trade pact include fishing, textiles, agriculture and electrical equipment. Djandji expects Vietnam’s stock market will also benefit. The market ended the week barely changed from last week, but remains up more than 60% over the past year.
By Dan Keeler
Source: WSJ