Vietnam's To Lam heads to UN week and Canada as U.S. tariff threat hangs over talks

Trip plan and who's coming

President To Lam is headed to New York for the UN General Assembly from Sept. 20 to 25 and is slated to address the gathering on Sept. 22. The itinerary also features a Canada leg for talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney and senior parliamentary figures, according to foreign ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang in Hanoi.

He's also set to meet U.S. government officials and lawmakers. People familiar with the planning, who requested anonymity because details aren't public yet, say executives from Vietnam Airlines, VietJet Aviation, Sun Group and Vietnam National Industry-Energy Group, or PetroVietnam, will travel with him. Those firms are expected to announce deals with U.S. counterparts. Representatives of Vietnam Airlines, VietJet, Sun Group and PetroVietnam did not respond to requests for comment.

The trade backdrop and recent U.S. steps

Washington has renewed the threat of higher tariffs while it runs three simultaneous Section 301 investigations into Vietnam's trade practices, with talks snagging on issues like transshipment and non-tariff barriers. U.S. officials want Hanoi to curb what they view as illicit Chinese goods transiting Vietnam on the way to American buyers.

Recently, U.S. customs inspectors have conducted spot checks at China-linked factories in Vietnam. They reviewed documents, raw material sourcing and production processes to gauge value added before export to the U.S., and they examined potential software intellectual property violations. The Trump administration has consistently treated big bilateral imbalances as signs of unfair trade needing correction.

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Why this matters for your money

Vietnam's surplus with the U.S. has ballooned, and during the first half of 2026 the U.S. recorded its widest bilateral trade deficit with Vietnam, ahead of China, Mexico and Taiwan. To ease tensions, Hanoi has shut down piracy websites, stepped up raids on counterfeit vendors, argued that its efforts against forced labor are robust, and rolled out regulations prohibiting imports produced with forced labor.

The country has also become central to U.S. supply chains. Nike manufactures the majority of its footwear in Vietnam, and Apple has shifted much of its non-iPhone production there, especially AirPods and laptops. For everyday shoppers and long term savers, that mix means tariff talk can show up in the price of what you buy and in the earnings of the brands you follow.

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