Vietnam has confirmed it will lower its Most Favored Nation tariff on imported frozen pork from 15 to 10 percent. The reduction is expected to be implemented on July 1, 2022.
Getting better market access to Vietnam, a major pork-consuming country, has been a top trade priority for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). They recently led efforts asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to press Vietnam to eliminate tariffs on U.S. pork.
NPPC President Jen Sorenson said, “Vietnam consumes a lot of pork, but it has been dealing with African swine fever. 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.”
NPPC notes that while the rate reduction will help, because the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement with Vietnam, the U.S. pork industry remains at a competitive disadvantage to pork-supplying countries that do. This includes the European Union, Russia and nations in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. CPTPP countries, for example, have a duty of only 7.5 percent on frozen pork exports going to Vietnam.
NPPC has been urging the administration to join the 11-nation CPTPP. The U.S. was part of that trade pact’s predecessor, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but the Trump administration withdrew from the deal before it was finalized. (TPP became the CPTPP after the U.S. dropped out of the former).