It’s been several weeks since US President Donald Trump declared his global trade war, but Dinh Ngoc Hien is still busy tending to her stream of customers. One by one, they pluck cigarettes, noodles, eggs and soda from the shelves of her convenience store in Dong Nai, a heavily industrialized province just east of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s business capital. Hien has been here since dawn, and she’ll remain after dusk. Then she’ll lock up, get on her motorbike and zip through the bustling streets of a place that could have more to lose from Trump’s policies than almost any other.
The president’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, unveiled on April 2, targeted Vietnam with a 46% rate—one of the highest for any country, threatening to devastate large swaths of its economy. The nominally socialist nation of 100 million has woven itself tightly into global commerce since the late 1980s, when it began allowing free enterprise and started mending its war-ravaged relationship with the US. Adidas, Apple, Intel, Levi Strauss and Samsung Electronics have all set up manufacturing bases here, along with hundreds of other international companies. Today, net exports to the US account for around one fifth of Vietnam’s gross domestic product.
