The Trump administration on Friday opened an unfair trade practices investigation into Vietnam's intellectual property protection policies and enforcement that may lead to new tariffs or other trade measures.
Vietnam was identified as a priority country by the U.S. Trade Representative's office on April 30 "due to its persistent failure to resolve long-standing concerns about IP protection and enforcement," the USTR said.
Vietnam's government did not immediately comment. It has urged the U.S. to provide "an objective and balanced assessment of Vietnam's efforts and achievements" on IP protection.
During President Donald Trump's first term in office, USTR used a Section 301 investigation into China's IP-misappropriation and technology-transfer practices to impose sweeping tariffs of 25% on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of annual Chinese imports.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that while Vietnam has taken some steps in recent years to address IP concerns, infringement "continues to impair the competitive position of U.S. innovators and creators."
"We need to see Vietnam resolve these long-standing concerns, including on a range of IP enforcement issues, in a manner that is sustained and that deters future IP infringements," Greer said.
Leif Schneider, head of international law firm Luther in Vietnam, said Vietnam "has made substantial progress in modernizing its regulatory IP framework" over the past decade.
"The difficulty, however, has always been less about legislation and more about implementation. Administrative enforcement remains uneven, penalties often lack deterrent effect, and online infringement continues to outpace regulatory capacity," Schneider said.
Counterfeits were widely available this week in a large wholesale market in Hanoi, and streaming websites operated from Vietnam continued to offer pirated content despite a government crackdown launched early this month, Reuters reported.
Vietnamese authorities conducted a similar crackdown last year after the Trump administration unveiled tariffs of 46% on imports from Vietnam, which have since been reduced to 10%. Vietnam has been in negotiations with Washington, its largest export market, for a trade agreement for the past year.
USTR said in a Federal Register notice that it has opened a docket for public comments on the matter through July 2.
