Mekong Brief reads the primary documents on trade, agriculture and sustainability policy in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, in Vietnamese and English.
The Fortnight in Brief: Hanoi writes its own test for "made in Vietnam," and Washington keeps its tire duty
Decree 384/2026/NĐ-CP, signed October 9 for the government by Standing Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Gia Túc, sets out when goods made and sold inside Vietnam can claim Vietnamese origin: when they are wholly obtained in Vietnam, when processing in Vietnam changes their HS heading at the four-digit level, or when at least 30 percent of their value is Vietnamese. Simple operations such as repacking, labeling, sorting and basic assembly do not count. The decree states that it does not cover origin certification for exports or imports, and exporters stay bound by export-origin law and the importing country's rules. It takes effect January 1, 2027.
Commerce found on October 5 that revoking the countervailing duty order on Vietnamese passenger and light-truck tires would likely lead to continued subsidies at 7.89 percent for Kumho Tire (Vietnam), 6.23 percent for Sailun (Vietnam) and 6.46 percent for all others. The ITC is conducting a full five-year review of that order and the antidumping orders on Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
The World Bank raised its 2026 growth forecast for Vietnam by 1.1 percentage points to 7.4 percent on October 6.
On rice, MoIT's Circular 65/2026/TT-BCT sets the electronic reporting and exporter-rating rules under Decree 365, which last week's Mekong Memo covered; the 100-point rating applies from January 1, 2028.
Policy Watch: Vietnam is off the EU tax blacklist, and stays under watch until a review with no date
Vietnam's exit from the EU tax blacklist this month removes the EU-level trigger for extra tax scrutiny of payments into Vietnam, in place since February, but the exit is conditional. Brussels moved Vietnam onto its watch list, and whether it stays off the blacklist depends on an international tax-transparency review that has no date yet. For EU groups with Vietnamese subsidiaries, suppliers or borrowers, and the lenders who finance them, the decision eases the pressure without settling the question.
The EU keeps two lists, and Vietnam has now been on both
Annex I, the blacklist, names jurisdictions the EU considers non-cooperative on tax. Member states can respond with defensive measures, such as denying tax deductions or raising withholding tax on payments there, and arrangements involving deductible payments to recipients there become reportable under the EU's DAC6 disclosure rules, according to KPMG's EU Tax Centre. Annex II records the commitments that cooperative jurisdictions still have to deliver (Council conclusions), and the Brussels Times describes those jurisdictions as monitored pending further steps. The Council added Vietnam to Annex I in February after the Global Forum, the OECD-hosted body that peer-reviews tax transparency, found it short of the standard for exchanging tax information on request. On October 9, EU finance ministers moved it to Annex II.
What Vietnam still owes, and what Hanoi's statement left out
Annex II lists two open items for Vietnam. It is one of three jurisdictions, with Panama and Montenegro, "waiting for an in-depth review by the Global Forum," and it has committed to address recommendations on its country-by-country reporting framework in time for an OECD peer review in autumn 2027. The Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision on October 10 without mentioning either. Both the Council and the Commission say Vietnam stays on Annex II until the new review is done.
The last time the Council removed Vietnam from Annex II, in October 2025 after it met an earlier reporting commitment (Commission, October 10, 2025), the exit did not last. In November 2025 a Global Forum peer review rated its information-exchange framework non-compliant, VCCI reported, and the February blacklisting came four months after Vietnam left Annex II.
Annex II carries one consequence at EU level. Under the EU's public country-by-country reporting directive, a group must report separately for any jurisdiction that was on Annex II on 1 March of both the reporting financial year and the year before, a test Vietnam could first meet in financial year 2028.
In my reading, an EU group or lender that tightened its treatment of Vietnamese payments after February should check whether its own member state's list, which runs on its own timeline, has caught up with the Council decision. Anyone pricing Vietnam tax risk should watch the Global Forum review, because its result decides whether Vietnam's next move is off Annex II or back onto Annex I.
A 74 percent preliminary duty on some Vietnamese air compressors and four other US cases that now run well above the Section 301 rate, with what a buyer should model for 2027; a 12-row Tracker; and this fortnight's trade-balance, coffee, and tilapia numbers.
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