What Happened Despite their greatly improved relations seen in recent years, the United States now has Vietnam in the crosshairs of its global trade war. On July 2, the U.S. Commerce Department announced it would impose duties of up to 456 percent on steel from Vietnam that originated in either South Korea or Taiwan. The department has found that corrosion-resistant steel and cold-rolled steel produced in South Korea and Taiwan have been shipped to Vietnam for minor processing before being re-exported to the United States in a bid to circumvent U.S. anti-dumping duties imposed on South Korea in 2015, and later Taiwan in 2016. The new anti-dumping tariffs — which were triggered by pressure from the U.S. steel producers — will impact only a small amount of trade. The United States imposed similar restrictions in May 2018 on Chinese steel shipped to Vietnam.