But the look is heading to Southeast Asia. In that same period, Vietnam sold goods for 106,223 million dollars, a 43.7% jump compared to 2024.
The contrast is overwhelming. Mexico advances with a moderate step, while Vietnam runs with a speed that took him from the seventh to fourth place among the largest suppliers in the United States in less than a year.
In July, when Washington and Hanoi signed an agreement on reciprocal tariffs, the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, acknowledged that Vietnam was a direct competitor in Mexico, but that an advantage was maintained in the cost of entry to the US market. As explained, Vietnamese products faced tariffs between 35 and 40% while Mexicans paid on average just 6%.
The theory seemed to shield the position of Mexico. However, that same month, purchases from Vietnam grew 50%, while Mexicans barely advanced 8%.
American customs reflect an increasingly clear pattern. Computers, electrical products, spare parts, mobile phones, machinery and tools are the goods that Vietnam acquires the most. They are items in which Mexico also has a wide presence, which converts competition into a background career.
Since 1995, when bilateral trade barely reached 451 million dollars, Vietnam consolidated its role as a manufacturing center. By 2024, US market sales already added 136,501 million dollars. That trajectory explains why the Asian country has become a strategic partner for Washington, especially in the middle of the dispute with China.
The new strategic relationship
The Vietnamese impulse also rests in recent political agreements. In September 2023, the United States and Vietnam signed a comprehensive strategic association that opened space for semiconductor cooperation, digital economy, energy and critical minerals. The agreement included the channeling of the United States Chips and Science Law towards training and development programs in Vietnam, with an approach to forming talent in Stem areas.
Mexico carefully observes this movement, since it also seeks to insert itself in the global semiconductor chain, a sector that will define competitiveness in the coming years.
The speed of Vietnamese growth also responds to the interest of US companies in diversifying their production. With low labor costs, political stability and market reforms oriented to the market, Vietnam is presented as an attractive alternative to manufacturing in China.
In 2023, foreign American foreign investment in that country reached 3.8 billion dollars, which represented a 10% increase compared to the previous year, the United States Congress Research Service points out.
The tariff cloud
On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a 10% global tariff to most imported products, in addition to a special 46% tax for all Vietnamese exports. That measure, the second highest applied to a country, was temporarily paused, but the general surcharge did enter into force on April 5.
Faced with the pressure, the authorities of the Asian country began negotiations with the White House and reinforced customs supervision to avoid illegal transford of Chinese products, a practice that has generated suspicion for years in the United States.
Thus, on July 2, Trump announced an agreement. Direct imports from Vietnam pay a 20%tariff, while transfined goods from third countries face a higher tax of 40%. With that adjustment, Vietnam became the first Asian country to close a commercial agreement with the United States under the new rules.
An increasing deficit
Vietnamese growth also brought a collateral effect. The American commercial deficit with that country reached 123,000 million dollars in 2024. Only in the first seven months of 2025 already adds 97,958 million. The balance places it as Washington’s third largest deficit in the world, only below Mexico and China.
The geographical advantage and benefits of the T-MEC are letters in favor of Mexico, but global competition demands more than close. It demands innovation, attraction of investment in new technologies and a commercial policy that anticipates market changes.
Meanwhile, diplomatic meetings between senior US and Vietnamese officials confirm that Washington sees in Hanoi a long -term partner. The official narrative speaks of cooperation for a stable Indo-Pacific, although the background is economical.
Vietnam, in just a decade, went from being an emerging player to become one of the pillars of world manufacturing.
For Mexico, photography is uncomfortable. The country retains leadership as the first supplier of goods to the United States, but the rhythm of its growth looks weak in front of Vietnam’s jump. In strategic sectors such as electronic, auto parts and telephones, the Asian country advances with firm steps that bring it dangerously.
