The United States on June 2, 2025 secured a $2-billion agricultural export deal with Vietnam, amid skewed bilateral trade.

Vietnam’s trade delegation led by the Minister of Agriculture & Environment Do Duc Duy is currently undertaking a June 1-7 interstate tour.  

In its earliest tour leg, the delegation has already bagged almost $800 million in corn and soymeal import deals in Iowa.

One company in the minister’s delegation landed a 1 million-ton soy meal import tender worth up to $390 million. Another inked a corn import deal for 0.9 million tonnes amounting to $250 million.

This is even as a nutritional processing technology entity contracted an Iowa soymeal and DDGS firm for supplies worth $60 million.

Iowa is a leading agricultural state whose vast grain wealth feeds humans and livestock alike, at home and abroad. 

The state’s rich soy products are strategic, as this legume is at the heart of the China-U.S. tariff war. The oilseed first stole the spotlight in the 2018-20 trade war when Sino-Brazilian soy ties left Washington in the lurch. 

Balancing the Act

The ongoing deals reflect Vietnam’s wish to augment its status as the country with the third highest trade imbalance with the United States. 

The Southeast Asia nation has a trade surplus of over $123 billion above the U.S.’, as of November 2024.

This surplus have been the centerpiece of two rounds of talks in April and May 2025, culminating in the ministerial visit. 

Analysts also cite that Hanoi’s eagerness to broker a deal with Trump’s administration is to prevent a 46% tariff. 

Supplanting the lack of a free trade area agreement, Hanoi in March 2025 entered the U.S. in a most favored nation (MFN) tariff bracket.

It is therefore by goodwill that Vietnam is currently signing corn, soy and other agricultural deals to appease its Western ally. To learn more on the agricultural trade between the two nations, read on in the statistics section below. 

United States and Vietnam Agricultural Trade Statistics 

While enjoying 20% surplus bilateral trade advantage over the United States, Vietnam in 2024 bought $3.4 billion in American agricultural merchandise. In reciprocation, it recorded four times that figure in agri-food exports to the U.S., worth $13.68 billion. Two years earlier (2022), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had identified Vietnam as the U.S.’ 9th biggest agricultural export market.

Which agricultural products does the United States export to Vietnam? 

In 2022, the United States exported $3.94 billion in food products to Hanoi, mostly processed. They ranged from plantation crops like cotton and forestry, to oilseeds like soybeans, grains like corn, poultry products, nuts, fresh fruits and fodder. 

How important is the American market for Vietnam’s agri-food exports? 

The United States represents 92% of all agricultural/forestry exports by Vietnam in the North American market, as of November 2024. The most important are wood and forestry, whose exports to the U.S. clocked $6.5 billion in the January-September 2024 period. Runners-up include cashew nuts at $871million, pepper at $300 million, and fruits/vegetables at $254 million (January-September 2024).