While investors spent the weekend licking their wounds over the $6.6 trillion wipeout in American equities in the 48 hours after “Liberation Day,” world leaders went into overdrive to secure eleventh-hour trade deals with President Donald Trump before the so-called reciprocal tariff penalties on the 60 countries subject to additional tariffs beyond the 10% baseline goes into effect this Wednesday. Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, announced on Sunday that more than 50 countries reached out to the White House to make a deal, with Vietnam publicly pledging to bring their tariffs down to zero if the United States agrees to do the same.
If the stated purpose of Trump’s tariff regime is to correct the “national emergency” of “the current lack of trade reciprocity” that supposedly imperils our economic and national security, then Trump can and should begin to declare victory by sealing a zero-zero reciprocal tariff deal with Vietnam and our other allies smart enough to follow suit. While Vietnam’s tariffs on American exports are nowhere near the White House’s hysterical estimate of 46% — the Trump administration’s own trade.gov concedes that “most U.S. exports now face tariffs of 15% or less” in Vietnam — bringing down a 15% tariff to 0% is no small feat. Demonstrating the art of the deal in practice would not only reverse the short-term tragedy in the equities markets, but help to consolidate our democratic partners in icing the Chinese out of freer and fairer markets, making the +50% tariffs we’re now imposing on Beijing all the more punishing.
