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US ag exports to benefit from Vietnam tariff reduction

Vietnam’s decision to reduce their Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff rate is good news for US corn, wheat, and pork producers.

US Grains Council President Ryan LeGrand tells Brownfield beginning December 30^th the tariff on corn imports to Vietnam will decrease from 5% to 2%.

“Vietnam is the largest corn importer in all of southeast Asia, I think they import around 10 million metric tons, and we typically get less than 1 million tons of that, so a really small market share.”

He says the tariff reduction should allow the US to fulfill more of that demand.

“That puts us on par with all other exporters to that nation and I think we are going to get a much larger piece of that pie moving forward as long as we are competitive.”

The provision will also lower the tax on frozen pork from 15% down to 10% beginning July 1 and eliminate the tax on wheat.

The USDA reports US corn, wheat, and pork exports to Vietnam in 2020 were valued at $228. Vietnamese purchases of US DDGs increased in 2020/2021 to 1.7 million metric tons placing the country as the second largest market and LeGrand says he looks forward to increasing those numbers thanks to tariff reductions.

Brownfield interviewed LeGrand during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk event Thursday.