HANOI, Nov 12 (Reuters): Vietnam is working to sign a trade agreement with the United States soon, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Wednesday, as a new round of negotiations gets underway in Washington.

In October, the two countries agreed to finalise a trade deal within weeks that would maintain U.S. tariffs of 20% on its imports of Vietnamese goods, but exempt some unspecified products from the new duty imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in August.

Son urged U.S. businesses at a conference in Hanoi to help in bilateral negotiations so that the two parties could "soon sign a fair and balanced trade agreement."

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Michael DeSombre, told the conference in a recorded statement that the trade deal should rebalance commercial flows between the two countries, reducing the U.S. deficit with Hanoi, which is the largest after China and Mexico.

For the first 10 months of the year, Vietnam has recorded a $111 billion trade surplus with the U.S. - pointing to another potential annual record - according to Vietnamese data, which is usually more conservative than U.S. trade figures, currently unavailable because of an ongoing federal government shutdown.

Photo from Reuters