• TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    Anyone know why Vietnam is going through with this? I’m guessing it’s to try and get a better tariff deal but seems incredibly short sighted given Trump changes those constantly.

    • CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      19 days ago

      If I had to guess, Vietnam is extremely exposed to US risk without deriving much leverage from that relationship. A country like Brazil is definitely hurt by trade wars, but the US is only Brazil’s second or third trade partner (depending on whether you count the EU as a bloc, I mean, they negotiate as one). México on the other hand is an annex of the US economy. It both exports and imports way too much from the american economy to the point where trade wars must be prosecuted with much more care.

      In this sense Vietnam is more of a Germany than a México. Too exposed to US risk to even want to stand their ground on trade issues.

      • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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        19 days ago

        Yeah that’s my thought too, I know I’ve seen it mentioned a few times that they’re like China in that they focused their economy on exports in order to look good my IMF metrics.

        Found this that says as of 2022 the US is their largest trading partner. They’re almost double #2 China so if it’s a short term play to buy time it’s what they have to do but feel like they really need to start shifting focus from doing business with the US.

        • kredditacc@lemmygrad.ml
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          17 days ago

          they really need to start shifting focus from doing business with the US.

          And Vietnam is doing it. We signed many bilateral trade deals with China, Brazil, etc. We became a BRICS partner country. And more that I can’t recall from the back of my head atm.

          • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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            17 days ago

            You’re right I do remember the deals and BRICS partner news now.

            Pivoting will take time so makes sense the leadership is trying to minimize the tariff damage in the meantime.

            I don’t have a great frame of reference for the reparations amounts to the farmers though, would you consider those fair?

            • kredditacc@lemmygrad.ml
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              22 hours ago

              Sorry for late response. I don’t want to risk spreading misinformation because of my hastiness.

              I don’t have a great frame of reference for the reparations amounts to the farmers though, would you consider those fair?

              I have found a Twitter thread that may explain many things: https://x.com/wrenevans217208/status/1954987545651204386

              This guy seems to know more than me, you may ask him.

              • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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                19 hours ago

                No worries and thank you! I’d rather get accurate info even if it takes time, thanks for the link they do give a good rundown on how the article is incredibly misleading.

                Summarizing below for others but also including an Xcancel link to the entire thread.

                • Trump is not going to own the land or the company. They’re paying him $5M in franchise fees for the brand right basically which is pretty small amount given they were able to get their tariff lowered from I believe 47% to 20%.
                • Vietnamese company Kinh Bac will own and manage it.
                • The farmers didn’t own the land so it’s not like it’s being taken from them. All land in Vietnam is owned by the public and rights to use the land are given so they basically got free us of it.
                • Foreigners can’t even be given rights to use land.
                • Immediately after the investment policy was approved, the local government organized conferences to collect community opinions to win their agreement and high consensus on the project.
                • A 2019 law outlining settlements for when land use rights are transferred like in this case so are known publicly.
                • This part is just speculation on my part but I would assume they can just submit another land use request for different farmland and be given that.

                That account seems to be a pretty good source for Vietnam news and debunking western propaganda related to it.