Vietnam is aiming to finalise a trade agreement with the United States in the near future, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Wednesday, as a new round of talks begins in Washington.

In October, both countries agreed to complete the deal within weeks, which would keep US tariffs on Vietnamese imports at 20% while exempting certain unspecified products from the new duties introduced by US President Donald Trump in August.

At a conference in Hanoi, Son called on US businesses to support the bilateral negotiations, aiming for the two countries to “soon sign a fair and balanced trade agreement.”

In a recorded statement to the conference, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre said the trade deal should help rebalance commercial flows between the US and Vietnam, lowering the US trade deficit with Hanoi, which is the third-largest after China and Mexico.

In the first 10 months of the year, Vietnam posted a $111 billion trade surplus with the US, potentially setting another annual record, according to Vietnamese data, which tend to be more conservative than US figures, currently unavailable due to a federal government shutdown.

A Vietnamese delegation led by Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien is in Washington this week for a new round of talks with US officials to work on finalising the trade agreement, the trade ministry said on its website.

A source familiar with the talks said negotiations would concentrate on identifying Vietnamese products that could be exempt from US tariffs, such as coffee, and defining the scope of preferential access to Vietnam that Hanoi has promised for US goods, including cars and agricultural products.

The Vietnamese side hopes to finalise the deal ideally after the US Supreme Court rules on the legality of the tariffs imposed by Trump, potentially by December, the source added.

The court’s decision is expected sometime between the end of this year and mid-2026, Reuters reports.

Vietnamese negotiators are eager to have the trade deal signed alongside a meeting between Trump and Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, several officials said.

At Wednesday’s conference, Son called on US businesses to help facilitate the high-level meeting, noting that previous attempts to arrange it had been unsuccessful, according to multiple officials.

He also urged US businesses to press Washington to recognise Vietnam as a market economy and remove restrictions on the export of high-tech products, including advanced semiconductors.

DeSombre noted that Vietnam could contribute to global supply chains for critical minerals, pointing out that the country has substantial reserves of rare earths and gallium but has been slow to develop them.