Just when Vietnam was catching China up
09/04/2025
According to reports, the government in Hanoi has now promised to buy more US goods if its counterpart in Washington DC agrees to lower tariff levels from the startling 46% announced on April 2. Discussions are ongoing.
The same cannot be said at the moment for China. US president, Donald Trump, announced a further increase to tariffs on imports from China on April 8, putting levels at the astounding figure of 104%, as things stand.
China has been the biggest Asian exporter to the US for years but all the April antagonism has come at a time when Vietnam was catching up, at least when it comes to exports of footwear and apparel.
Figures from the US Census Bureau show that, in 2024, the US imported shoes and clothes from China with a value of $27.1 billion. The corresponding figure for Vietnam was $23.6 billion. This difference between the two manufacturing countries, $3.5 billion, is the narrowest it has ever been.
In 2014, China’s exports to the US of footwear and clothing had a value of $47.5 billion, while Vietnam’s exports in this category brought in export revenues of $12.8 billion that year. Since then, the increase for Vietnam has been as steady as the decrease for China.
Both countries saw sharp dips in 2020 when the covid-19 crisis began, steep recoveries in 2022 in an initial post-covid boost, then falls again in 2023 when the post-pandemic consumer spending euphoria wore off.
By last year, though, Vietnam’s exports of shoes and apparel had more than recovered their 2019 value, while China’s were $11.5 billion lower than before the pandemic.
Image: Puma.
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