The Trump administration announced a new "trade agreement" with Vietnam. Instead of imposing 46 percent tariffs on goods from Hanoi, the US will charge a 20 percent duty on all imports from the country, while Vietnam will go zero-free on all imports from the US.

Not only that, but the US will levy a 40 percent tariff on all goods from Vietnam that are rerouted from China, a significant measure given that a large portion of Vietnamese exports are repackaged goods in supply chains integrated with its northern neighbor.

We have long known that the Trump administration has sought to suppress this, which was a key motivation behind its heavy-handed tariff assault on Hanoi in the first place.

Let's be honest: This contract is disastrous for Vietnam, threatening to destroy its export model from an early stage, without the benefit of China's vast capacity. Vietnam is an emerging economy that has joined the value chain with a cheap and plentiful labor force as its key asset.

As China has become more expensive for the cheapest commodities and has progressed into producing more specialized components, international corporations have outsourced various phases of assembly to the Southeast Asian country to save costs.

For example, most Apple iPhone suppliers are based in China, producing physical components, but portions of assembly have been outsourced to Vietnam. This is not an "exodus" from China, since many Chinese companies have outsourced production to Vietnam to avoid tariffs.

While one might expect US strategists to see value in an economically stronger Vietnam as part of a larger regional vision to contain Beijing, and thus have attempted to cultivate stronger relationships with Hanoi, the reality is that Trump's protectionist "America First" worldview interprets trade as a zero-sum game, so the fact that China sees Vietnam as a "loophole" is unacceptable.

For Trump, there are only "winners" and "losers" in trade, so a Vietnam that prospers compared with the US and China is out of the question; it's all for America or nothing.

In such an event, the White House has concluded that it is preferable to crush Vietnam's trade rather than allow it to be a mutual beneficiary. As a result, the United States has pushed Hanoi, a developing country, to agree to one-sided economic arrangements.

Vietnam is required to entirely open itself to the American market, but this privilege is not returned, and Vietnamese enterprises will suffer a 20 percent tariff on all exports, plus a 40 percent levy if they are from China.

While Vietnam has endeavored to create a close strategic partnership with the United States, with China in mind, this "trade deal" can only be defined as punishing for its economic development and strategy, as it will now have to seek elsewhere and not rely on America.

It is an absurdly self-defeating move against US firms looking to save costs, but it will undoubtedly cause them to reconsider expanding into Vietnam.

When Trump says "America First," he must be taken seriously. This isn't an "anyone but China" strategy, which many US strategists tolerated and Biden adopted; rather, it's a "I want manufacturing back to the United States" attitude.

I had assumed that, given its strategic importance, the US would back down on substantial tariffs against Vietnam and instead offer them a favorable arrangement, keeping China in mind.

Instead, it appears that the US president is dead serious about maintaining harsh tariffs on all countries and effectively demanding one-sided capitulation in exchange for little, if any, relief. Even the United Kingdom, which is at the top of the list and poses no trade danger to America, wasn't completely off the hook.

Thus, Vietnam, a strategically important country for US interests, has been effectively pushed into submission.

Ironically, this will not reduce their reliance on China, but rather highlight the long-term relevance of the Chinese economy as a haven.

Hanoi now faces some difficult considerations in restructuring its economic development strategy. Its role as a haven for businesses leaving China in search of access to the United States is no longer relevant.

Trump is not only building a wall along the border, but also surrounding all of the United States' ports of entry.

(The author, a postgraduate student of Chinese studies at Oxford University, is an English analyst on international relations. The views are his own.)