Vietnam has renewed its efforts to combat counterfeits and digital piracy, as it engages in talks with U.S. officials seeking a reduction in punishing tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last month.
In a report published yesterday, Reuters news agency cited a number of Vietnamese government documents that revealed the scope of the looming crackdown. It cited a document from the customs department of the Ministry of Finance, which announced increased inspections at borders to ascertain the authenticity of key products. These include “luxury goods from Prada and Gucci owner Kering, electronic devices made by Google and Samsung, and toys from Mattel and Lego,” as well as “shampoos and razors sold by Procter & Gamble and Johnson and Johnson.”
The customs document was dated April 1, the day before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, during which Vietnam was hit with an unexpectedly harsh 46 percent “reciprocal” tariff, one of the harshest in the world. These tariffs have since been delayed for 90 days in order to allow time for negotiations, which began between U.S. and Vietnamese officials in Washington on May 7.
Administration officials accuse Vietnam of engaging in a number of improper trade practices that have contributed to its lopsided $123.5 billion trade surplus with the U.S., the third largest in the world after those of China and Mexico. The surplus has continued to grow in 2025, with Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. reaching a post-pandemic high in April, complicating the task ahead of Vietnamese trade negotiators.
Among the U.S. concerns is Vietnam’s alleged failure to tackle counterfeits and piracy of foreign goods, which, as any recent visitor to Vietnam can attest, are widely available in the country’s markets and boutiques. As Reuters reports, the customs document cited above referred to the import of counterfeits (most likely from China) rather than those produced in Vietnam, but it reported that the latter is a separate concern of U.S. officials.
According to the Reuters report, the Vietnamese authorities are also leading a clampdown on the use and sale of counterfeit software. It cited a document containing a “warning” from inspectors at the Ministry of Culture, dated April 14, which was sent to a local company whose name was redacted. Citing a person familiar with the matter, it reported that “similar letters have been sent to dozens of companies since the start of April.”
The actions against piracy and counterfeit goods are just one of a number of promises that Hanoi has made to the U.S. Vietnam has pledged to crack down on the fraudulent transshipment of Chinese goods via its territory, to remove tariffs and other trade barriers on U.S. imports, and to buy more U.S. goods, including Boeing aircraft and liquefied natural gas. Earlier this month, Vietnam’s Trade Ministry encouraged Vietnamese manufacturers to buy more U.S.-made goods in order to close the trade imbalance.
These moves reflect the serious, even existential, threat that the Trump tariff poses to Vietnam’s export-led economy, and hence, the stability of Communist Party rule. Exports to the U.S. last year accounted for 29 percent of its total exports and a whopping 30 percent of its GDP. As Josh Kurlantzick of the Council on Foreign Relations has noted, Vietnam is “probably the single middle-income economy most endangered by the Trump Administration’s tariff policies.”
As I’ve noted previously, Vietnamese negotiators are also seeking some concessions in return: recognition of Vietnam as a market economy – a request that the U.S. government declined last August – and the removal of restrictions on high-tech exports, which they argue can help reduce the large trade surplus with the United States.
However, as the trade negotiations proceed between now and July, it is evident that some difficult discussions lie ahead.