Vietnam, Trump’s betrayal: because it is the country most affected by duties (where Nike produces half of his shoes)
The country, theater of the longest and most devastating American war since 1945, is the most affected by the new « mutual » duties. However, they risk damaging Big USA and not only, such as Nike, Adidas and the Italian Geox
The symbolism of the announcement launched by Donald Trump in the European evening of Wednesday 2 AprilThe « Liberation Day»In Trumpian propaganda and the day of the true start of the commercial war for the rest of the world: the Vietnamtheater of the longer and devastating American war since 1945is the country most affected by the new ones « mutual » duties.
In reality, the economy against which the United States raised the highest barriers remains Chinastrategic rival of these decades against which the sum of the customs protections introduced in the last seven weeks reaches 56% (a level similar to the duties of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act). But Vietnam is the country most affected by the last measures, with the accusation (indulgeted) of the White House to place 90% rates against the United States and the choice to put a tax at 46% on all Vietnamese products that enter the borders.
Nike produces 50% of its shoes in Vietnam
It will not be without consequences, first of all for some iconic stars and stripes companies. Nike It produces 50% of its shoes and 28% of its sportswear in Vietnam (according to the Reuters agency) and on Wednesday evening it collapsed on the Stock Exchange in New York 8.8%. Moreover also brands like German Adidas (38% of shoes and 18% of clothing) or Italian Geox have for decades for decades The country of South-East Asia as its own production base. The factories have been working at full turns for so long that Vietnamese labor has developed a specific competence on sports shoes that are not quickly reproducible elsewhere.
The bombs and the wound of the war
But it’s not just an industrial problem. Less than two generations ago, Vietnam has undergone more bombing by the United States than those who targeted the whole of Europe during the Second World War. The generation of fighters is still alive, partly active and in power and it is also that of those who have undergone biological damage immense from the « orange agent», A chemical in the American bombs aimed at destroying forests and eliminating the coverage of the Vietcong during the war.
The wounds inflicted by Trump at Vietnam: also the cuts to the USAID Agency
Moreover I duties I’m not the first blow to Vietnam, since Donald Trump has returned to the White House. The cuts to the Usaid agency blocked the dismantling of the countryside, also a product of the war ended in 1975. And the Vietnamese press, under the strict control of the Communist Party in power, only makes the compatriots deported from the United States with the anti-immigration policies of Trump.
The hug of XI China at the new Vietnam
The new Asian tiger, with almost 100 million inhabitants and an average age of just over thirty years old, had a cult for America by Ronald Reagan and then Bill Clinton: the first removed every embargo from Vietnam in the second half of the 80s, the second helped its integration into the world economy. Trump’s America, on the other hand, risks postponing the government (and army) of Hanoi where the new generations of Vietnamese, capitalists and western wire, would not like to find themselves: in the arms of the Xi Jinping China.
