Reporter Presses Marco Rubio Over Vietnam Tariff Rate In Trade Deal: 'Maybe Some Misunderstanding?'

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During a press briefing on Friday, Secretary Of State Marco Rubio was asked a question about a trade deal signed between the United States and Vietnam.

Transcript

00:00trade. Secretary, if I can ask a question about your meeting with Vietnam, a country with one of

00:05the largest trade surpluses with the U.S., we've heard that there was maybe some misunderstanding

00:11about the agreement announced last week for a 20 percent tariff, that the Vietnamese weren't

00:18confident that that was fully agreed to, that perhaps they were looking for a 10 to 15 percent

00:23tariff. Was that an issue that they raised trying to lower their tariff level? Was that the tariff

00:28an issue that they raised during the bilateral meeting? Well, the issue of trade was raised.

00:33I'm not the negotiator on trade, and neither is the foreign minister, and so we weren't here to

00:39negotiate a trade deal. I'll refer you to our trade negotiators as far as the status of that.

00:44Clearly, Vietnam feels that if they enter into an agreement with the United States, they want to

00:49have a tariff rate that's at least as good as, if not better, than other countries that don't have

00:53a trade agreement with us. But I'll leave, you know, I have to refer you to our negotiators because I

00:58just don't know what the status of those negotiations are at this point.

01:01On that, the president did announce that there was an agreement reached with Vietnam,

01:05and yet Vietnam is saying that they never reached that agreement. So they must have raised this

01:09issue with you today. No, I mean, that, neither that, that issue, it just wasn't a trade meeting.

01:13We didn't, I'm not saying it's not a relevant issue. It's just not what the purpose of our meeting

01:17was about today. We talked about a lot of other issues, but perhaps the reason why it wasn't raised is

01:23because I'm not the trade negotiator, and these are, these are not trade negotiators.

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