By Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu
HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam escalated a charm offensive with the United States on Friday as it announced provisional deals for the import of U.S. energy products and a possible cut in duties on U.S. goods, as it tries to avoid tariffs from the Trump administration.
The moves, reported by the Vietnamese government, are part of a series of measures the Southeast Asian industrial hub has signalled in past weeks to reduce its trade surplus with Washington, which exceeded $123 billion last year.
On Friday state-controlled energy firm PetroVietnam Power said it had signed a preliminary deal with GE Vernova for the procurement of GE equipment and services for gas-fired power plants.
Vietnam’s trade ministry also announced additional provisional deals by Vietnamese and U.S. firms for the import of energy equipment, ethanol, and liquefied natural gas-related products into Vietnam.
Earlier, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper that authorities were “reviewing import tariffs on goods from the United States,” according to a report on the government portal.
The move was meant to “encourage increased imports of key U.S. products that Vietnam needs, especially agricultural products, liquefied gas and high-tech products,” according to the report.
The energy deals were announced as Vietnam’s trade minister Nguyen Hong Dien visited Washington to meet top U.S. officials, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
Dien and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer discussed ways to promote business ties “through proactively reviewing and considering the removal of trade barriers” and combat fraudulent transshipment schemes, according to a statement from the Vietnamese trade ministry.
There was no announcement from the U.S. side and it was unclear how the Trump administration was valuing the signing of provisional energy deals in the form of memoranda of understanding.
In a separate possible positive sign, a large delegation of U.S. corporations, including Apple, Boeing, and Amazon, is set to visit Vietnam next week, according to an internal list of participants seen by Reuters.
U.S. businesses and manufacturers in Vietnam voiced concerns about their operations in case of tariffs, according to a February survey.
REPEATED PLEDGES
Vietnamese officials have repeatedly indicated their willingness to meet U.S. requests on reducing trade imbalances and to facilitate U.S. business in the country, including pledging a quick licensing process for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite services.
Vietnam is one of the world’s top exporters to the United States, with the U.S. market absorbing Vietnamese imports worth nearly one-third of the Southeast Asian country’s economic output.
Vietnamese imports of U.S. LNG have often been mentioned by Vietnamese and U.S. officials as a means to reduce the large trade gap. The fledgling Vietnamese LNG industry currently relies on spot deals for small shipments, rather than multi-year contracts preferred by U.S. exporters, but it needs equipment to expand.
Among companies that will join the U.S. business mission to Vietnam next week is Excelerate Energy, a provider of floating terminals for LNG, and GE Vernova, according to the internal list of participants. Both signed preliminary deals with Vietnamese companies, according to reports on Friday.
In February, the trade minister said Vietnam was ready to import more farm products from the United States.
More than a quarter of U.S. exports to Vietnam last year were agricultural products, mostly cotton, soybeans and tree nuts, with a total value of $3.4 billion, according to U.S. government data.
Vietnam is also keen to buy more U.S. high-tech products, including AI-grade chips, but faces restrictions on accessing the most advanced semiconductors under rules adopted by the Biden administration.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu; additional reporting by Emily Chow in Singapore; Editing by John Mair, Michael Perry, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kate Mayberry)
