Trump to remove Vietnam from restricted tech list: Hanoi

HANOI: US President Donald Trump told Vietnam’s top leader To Lam he would “instruct the relevant agencies” to remove the country from a list restricted from accessing advanced US technologies, Vietnam’s government announced Saturday.

The two leaders met in person for the first time at the White House on Friday, after Lam attended the inaugural meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington.

“Donald Trump said he would instruct the relevant agencies to soon remove Vietnam from the strategic export control list,” Hanoi’s Government News website said.

The two countries were locked in protracted trade negotiations when the US Supreme Court ruled many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs were illegal.

Three Vietnamese airlines announced nearly $37 billion in purchases this week, in a series of contracts signed with US aerospace companies.

Fledgling airline Sun PhuQuoc Airways placed an order for 40 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, a long-haul aircraft, with an estimated total value of $22.5 billion, while national carrier Vietnam Airlines placed an $8.1 billion order for around 50 Boeing 737-8 aircraft.

When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Vietnam had the third-largest trade surplus with the US of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in Trump’s tariff blitz.

But in July, Hanoi secured a minimum 20 percent tariff with Washington, down from more than 40 percent, in return for opening its market to US products including cars.

Trump signed off on a global 10-percent tariff on Friday on all countries hours after the Supreme Court ruled many of his levies on imports were illegal.