First Major Country Blinks, Offers To Eliminate All Tariffs On US Goods

President Donald Trump announced on Friday morning that Vietnamese leader To Lam is willing to eliminate tariffs to avoid punishing new U.S. duties imposed on the Southeast Asian nation’s imports.

“Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future,” Trump wrote.

“News of the call, which Trump posted about on social media, sent stocks of companies that make some of their goods in Vietnam higher. Shares in Nike, for example, jumped more than 4%. The Trump administration had levied tariffs of 46% on Vietnam earlier this week. Trump said Friday he looked forward to meeting with To Lam in the near future,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

This comes as the U.S. economy boomed in March.

The U.S. economy continued to add jobs in March and the pace of job gains picked up at a faster pace than a month ago despite economic uncertainty.

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The Labor Department said on Friday that employers added 228,000 jobs in March, which was more than the 135,000 jobs that LSEG economists thought would be added.

The unemployment rate was 4.2%, which was a little higher than a month ago and higher than what economists thought it would be. It was decided that the number of jobs added in January and February had been wrong. In January, the number of jobs added was lowered from 125,000 to 111,000, while in February, it was lowered from 151,000 to 117,000.

All together, the changes bring down the number of jobs by 48,000 from what was originally reported.

In March, the private sector added 209,000 jobs, which is a lot more than the 127,000 jobs that LSEG economists thought would be added.

In March, the government added 19,000 jobs. In this sector, federal employment fell by 4,000 jobs in March, following a drop of 11,000 jobs in January. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who are on paid leave or who are getting severance pay are still counted as employed in the establishment survey.

The manufacturing sector added 1,000 jobs last month, which was less than the 4,000 jobs that LSEG economists thought it would add.

In March, 53,600 jobs were added in healthcare, which is about the same as the average monthly gain of 52,000 over the last 12 months. There were more jobs in hospitals (+17,100), nursing and residential care facilities (+16,700), and ambulatory healthcare services (+19,800).

There were 24,200 more jobs in social assistance roles in March than in any other month in the past year. These services added 21,900 jobs and saw the most growth, making up most of the growth.

In March, retail added 23,700 jobs. Food and beverage retailers gained 20,700 jobs, thanks to workers coming back from a strike. General merchandise retailers, on the other hand, lost 4,800 jobs. The number of jobs in the sector hasn’t changed much in the past year.

Transportation and storage added 22,900 jobs in March, which is almost twice as many as the 12,000 jobs that were added each month over the last twelve months. In this sector, job gains in couriers and messengers (+15,800) and truck transportation (+9,600) were partly cancelled out by job losses in storage and warehouses (-9,400).

The rate of people in the labor force was 62.5%, which hasn’t changed much in the past month or year.

“The March employment report has to be viewed as backward looking, but on balance was a touch stronger than expected and gives the Federal Reserve the space to keep policy on extended hold as it monitors the impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive actions on inflation,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Finance. “We expect the tariffs to push inflation close to 4% this year.”

When Lori Chavez-Deremer went on “Varney & Co.” on FOX Business, she said, “I couldn’t be more positive and happy for this jobs report this month—228,000 jobs, we blew it out of the market, we blew it out of the water.” Not what people thought would happen, but they are responding to Trump’s ideas and economy.