Vietnam becomes biggest US trade-surplus partner as exports jump 53%

Vietnam became the country with the largest trade surplus with the United States in the world in January 2026, overtaking both Mexico and China after exports from Vietnam rose sharply while direct Chinese shipments to the US fell steeply. The latest official US data showed Vietnam posted a trade surplus with the United States of $19 billion in January, the highest among all US trading partners. Taiwan, Mexico and China followed behind.

Vietnam’s exports to the United States rose 53% year on year to more than $20 billion in the first month of this year, while US imports from China over the same period dropped 46%. Vietnam’s surplus with the US had already moved ahead of China’s from the second quarter of 2025 and had ranked behind only Mexico over the past three quarters. For the whole of 2025, Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US reached $178 billion.

Hanoi has been negotiating a trade agreement with Washington for several months, but no deal has yet been reached. The talks have stalled because of the widening trade gap and disagreements over the tariff rates the United States wants to impose on Vietnamese goods.

Vietnam’s exports to the US have continued to climb after Washington imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods, eroding the competitiveness of Chinese exporters. At the same time, Vietnam has sharply increased imports from China, with many of those goods being brought into Vietnam for onward export to the US.

However, President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly accused Vietnam of serving as a transit route for Chinese goods seeking entry into the American market, because items labelled “Made in Vietnam” are subject to lower tariffs. Goods found to involve illegal transshipment can face US tariffs of as much as 40%, although the White House has not yet set out clear criteria for determining which products fall into that category.

This week, the United States also opened new investigations into Vietnam and other countries under Section 301 over alleged unfair trade practices. The investigations are part of a broader push by the Trump administration to rebuild tariff pressure after a US Supreme Court ruling struck down earlier emergency-based tariffs.

Previously, in August 2025, Washington imposed a 20% tariff on goods from Vietnam. But after the US Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that Trump’s earlier reciprocal tariffs were unlawful, the White House switched to a 10% global tariff for 150 days instead.

The figures underline how the structure of US trade is changing as companies keep shifting supply chains across Asia. Vietnam has emerged as one of the clearest beneficiaries of that trend, but its growing surplus with the United States is also making it a bigger target for trade scrutiny from Washington.