The country will also lower tariffs on corn and pork products
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Some U.S. farm products will have an easier time entering an important Asian market.
The Vietnamese government issued Decree 101/2021/ND-CP on Nov. 15, which revised its most-favored nation (MFN) rates for corn, wheat and frozen pork.
The document calls for the elimination of tariffs on wheat. This reduction comes after Vietnam lowered the tariffs from 5 percent to 3 percent in July 2020.
The decree also lowers duties on corn from 5 percent to 2 percent and reduces the tariff on frozen pork from 15 percent to 10 percent.
The lower tariffs will take effect on Dec. 30 and put the United States in line with other countries, like Canada, who have trade agreements with Vietnam.
The U.S. exports about 4 million metric tons of wheat to Vietnam per year.
Removing the tariffs could help the U.S. export more, said Darren Padget, chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates.
“U.S. wheat exports to Vietnam’s growing market are much slower so far this year because of short supplies and rising prices, so eliminating this tariff is very important for growers like me,” he said in a statement.
Other ag groups are pleased with the lower tariffs too.
Vietnam’s pork sector lost about 86,000 pigs in 2020 because of African swine fever.
U.S. pork producers could help fill the gap.
“Vietnam consumes a lot of pork, but it has been dealing with African swine fever,” Jen Sorenson, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said in a Nov. 17 statement. “That has decimated its domestic pork production and increased its reliance on imported pork. The tariff cut will let us send more product to Vietnam to fill its need.”