Vietnam, For Once, Was Not America’s Fastest-Growing Trade Partner

Vietnam-U.S. trade grew 25.91% in 2021 and it topped $100 billion for the first time to finish as the nation’s 10th-ranked trade partner.

What is remarkable is that for the first time in at least two decades, not just one but two of the current top 10 trade partners saw their trade grow more rapidly — No. 8 India, at 44.29% and No. 1 Canada at 26.38%.

This is the last in a series of columns focused on each of the United States’ top 10 trade partners. I previously wrote columns about Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Taiwan.

These 10 countries account for two-thirds of all U.S. trade, with just the top three at better than 42%.

I wrote a similar series of columns about the nation’s top 10 ports — Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Port of Los Angeles, Port Laredo in Texas, New York’s JFK International, the Port of Newark, the Port of Houston, Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge, Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Savannah.

Vietnam’s growth over the last two decades has been unprecedented.

Here’s a quick look back:

Since 2001, or 20 years, U.S. trade has grown 145.27%. Vietnam’s trade has grown 7,358.37%. The second-fastest growth rate among the top 10 is India, at about one-tenth of that growth rate, 740.29%.

Over the last 15 years, U.S. trade has grown 59.27%. U.S. trade with Vietnam is up 1,067.43%. Over the last decade, U.S. trade is up 24.29%; Vietnam-U.S trade, 417.61.

Over the last five years, U.S. trade is up 25.95% while Vietnam-U.S. trade is up 115.95% — only four times as fast. U.S. trade with No. 8 Taiwan grew the second fastest over the last five years, up 74.55%

Almost all of that growth has come in the form of imports to the United States — for every dollar of trade between the two counties, 90 cents was a U.S. import, a percentage that has actually worsened over the last handful of years.

That’s a percentage that’s better than only a handful of the world’s countries, none of which have more than $10 billion in annual trade with the United States. The percentage for China is 23% U.S. exports, the U.S. average 38.

For the last two years, the United States has had its third-largest deficit with Vietnam, trailing only No. 3-ranked trade partner China and No. 2-ranked Mexico. (Exports to Mexico account for 42% of U.S.-Mexico trade.)

Vietnam is out of the gates quickly in 2022, also. U.S. exports, at $770 million are below 2020 and 2021 totals for January, the latest data available. Imports, at $9.9 billion, are just shy of double the 2019 total.

More than one-third of that trade occurred at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2021, with another 4.3% at Los Angeles International Airport. But the top airport is Chicago’s O’Hare International, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth International.

That’s because the dominant Vietnamese import is something that flies rather than sails, something that is generally light-weight and expensive: cell phones and related equipment. In 2021, 59% fly into DFW with another 18% into O’Hare.

But Vietnam also imports plenty over the ocean, roughly 71% by value — and much higher by tonnage, of course. That includes furniture, seats, plywood, rubber tires, shoes, candles, sweaters, fish fillets, coffee, toys and so much more.