President Donald Trump announced on Friday morning that Vietnamese leader To Lam is willing to eliminate tariffs to avoid punishing new U.S. duties imposed on the Southeast Asian nation’s imports.
“Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future,” Trump wrote.
“News of the call, which Trump posted about on social media, sent stocks of companies that make some of their goods in Vietnam higher. Shares in Nike, for example, jumped more than 4%. The Trump administration had levied tariffs of 46% on Vietnam earlier this week. Trump said Friday he looked forward to meeting with To Lam in the near future,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
This comes as the U.S. economy boomed in March.
The U.S. economy continued to add jobs in March and the pace of job gains picked up at a faster pace than a month ago despite economic uncertainty.
The Labor Department said on Friday that employers added 228,000 jobs in March, which was more than the 135,000 jobs that LSEG economists thought would be added.
The unemployment rate was 4.2%, which was a little higher than a month ago and higher than what economists thought it would be. It was decided that the number of jobs added in January and February had been wrong. In January, the number of jobs added was lowered from 125,000 to 111,000, while in February, it was lowered from 151,000 to 117,000.
All together, the changes bring down the number of jobs by 48,000 from what was originally reported.
In March, the private sector added 209,000 jobs, which is a lot more than the 127,000 jobs that LSEG economists thought would be added.
In March, the government added 19,000 jobs. In this sector, federal employment fell by 4,000 jobs in March, following a drop of 11,000 jobs in January. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who are on paid leave or who are getting severance pay are still counted as employed in the establishment survey.
The manufacturing sector added 1,000 jobs last month, which was less than the 4,000 jobs that LSEG economists thought it would add.