AFP, Hanoi

Vietnamese and US companies have signed more than $4 billion in deals, a petrochemical giant said Friday, as anxiety mounts in Hanoi over potential tariffs under US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Southeast Asian nation has the third-biggest trade surplus with the US after China and Mexico -- both targeted by Trump since he took office.

A statement posted by PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PVPower) on its website said the new projects -- in areas such as aviation, oil and gas exploration and petrochemical imports -- were worth around $4.15 billion.

The “highly meaningful” deals were aimed at establishing “balanced and harmonious” trade and would create hundreds of thousands of jobs for workers in both countries, PVPower said.

They were signed in the US on Thursday during a visit by Vietnam’s trade and industry minister Nguyen Hong Dien to meet US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington.

Greer told Dien that Vietnam “needs to have stronger solutions to open the market and improve the trade balance”, according to a report on the website of Vietnam’s trade ministry.

There is increasing worry in Hanoi that Vietnam could be the next target of Trump’s tariffs, which have sent shockwaves through global markets.

Earlier, Hanoi said it was reviewing import duties on goods from the United States.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told US ambassador Marc Knapper that the review would look to encourage increased imports of liquified natural gas, as well as agricultural and high-tech products, a report on the government’s website said on Thursday.

Chinh told Knapper that Vietnam was “actively addressing the current concerns of the US in economic-trade-investment relations”.

Vietnam was also “reviewing import tariffs on goods from the United States, encouraging increased imports of key US products that Vietnam needs, especially agricultural products, liquefied gas and high-tech products”, the report added.