By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a trade agreement with Vietnam was nearly complete.

Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington that he could release details of the Vietnam trade agreement, but did not think it was necessary.

The U.S. president announced earlier this month that he had struck a preliminary trade deal with the Communist country, which would cut planned U.S. tariffs on imports from Vietnam to 20% from the 46% level he had threatened in April.

At the time, Trump also said goods that Washington deemed to be illegally transshipped through Vietnam to other countries would be subject to a 40% levy.

The agreement has not been finalized and details have not been released, leaving questions over how Washington will define an illegal transshipment and how much value Vietnam must add to imported products to avoid the 40% tariff. It also remains unclear which products would fall under Trump's 20% tariff.

Vietnam has not confirmed the specific tariff rates, celebrating what it described as an agreement on a joint statement about a trade framework.

Asked if he planned to release details of the trade pact with Vietnam, Trump told reporters, "Well, I might. I don't think it matters how much you release of the deal. We have a Vietnam deal, and I would say that that deal is being pretty well set."

Vietnam has nearly tripled its exports to the United States since the start of the U.S.-China trade war in 2018, when the first Trump administration imposed wide-ranging tariffs on Beijing, pushing some manufacturers to move production south.

At the same time, Vietnam vastly expanded imports from China, with their inflow almost exactly matching the value and swings of exports to the United States, each totalling around $140 billion in 2024, data from the U.S. and Vietnam show.