Vietnam finance minister Dinh Tien Dung speaks during an interview in London, Britain, July 4, 2019. REUTERS/Marc Jones
July 4, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Vietnam is determined to tackle U.S. concerns about steel exports at the center of a new tariff row, the country’s finance minister told Reuters on Thursday.
The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday said it would slap tariffs of up to 456% on certain steel produced in South Korea or Taiwan which is then shipped to Vietnam for minor processing before being exported to the United States.
“We will be determined in managing the situation, handling the violations and handling the breaches,” Dinh Tien Dung said in an interview through an interpreter.
He added that while there would be some economic impact from tariffs, the impact in the immediate future will not be that high because steel exports are not the biggest share of exports to the U.S..
He declined to say whether Vietnam would consider retaliatory tariffs, adding “we first need to review [the situation].”
(Reporting By Marc Jones; writing by Tom Arnold, editing by Karin Strohecker)
