Clearest evidence of how completely Vietnam has captured the 'China plus one' moment is its trade relationship with the US. In H1 2026, Vietnam's trade surplus with the US touched $114 bn, the largest of any country. US imports from Vietnam were up about 40% y-o-z, driven by companies reorienting supply chains away from China.
Vietnam's success in building an overwhelmingly large export channel is worth examining in India. It's not a story of low wages alone, but also of institutional predictability, tariff simplicity, an extraordinarily wide FTA network, and a state apparatus organised end-to-end around courting and retaining GVC anchors.
