U.S. President Donald Trump told Vietnam’s top leader he would “instruct the relevant agencies” to remove the country from a list restricted from accessing advanced U.S. technologies, Vietnam’ s government announced Saturday (February 21, 2026).
The two leaders met in person for the first time at the White House on Friday (February 20, 2026), after Mr. Lam attended the inaugural meeting of Mr. Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington.
“Donald Trump said he would instruct the relevant agencies to soon remove Vietnam from the strategic export control list,” Hanoi’s Government News website said.
U.S. Supreme Court rejects Trump tariffs LIVE
The two countries were locked in protracted trade negotiations when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled many of Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs were illegal.
Three Vietnamese airlines announced nearly $37 billion in purchases this week, in a series of contracts signed with U.S. aerospace companies.
Fledgling airline Sun PhuQuoc Airways placed an order for 40 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, a long-haul aircraft, with an estimated total value of $22.5 billion, while national carrier Vietnam Airlines placed an $8.1 billion order for around 50 Boeing 737-8 aircraft.
When Mr. Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Vietnam had the third-largest trade surplus with the U.S. of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in Mr. Trump’s tariff blitz.
But in July, Hanoi secured a minimum 20% tariff with Washington, down from more than 40%, in return for opening its market to U.S. products including cars.
Mr. Trump signed off on a global 10% tariff on Friday (February 20) on all countries hours after the Supreme Court ruled many of his levies on imports were illegal. |
