International investors in Vietnam are adopting a "wait-and-see strategy" following the Trump administration's 90-day tariff freeze. Dan Martin, an international business consultant based in Hanoi, warns unpredictable US trade policies are leading to frozen investments, and a broader economic slowdown.

DAN MARTIN, International Business Advisor, Dezan Shira & Associates "We're kind of waiting day to day for whatever news comes from the White House. I mean we go to sleep here in Hanoi 11 pm and wake up 6 am to 10 different notifications of policies being reversed going back and forth and it's really confusing and even if 90 days they roll back everything for the next four years a lot of people are going to be nervous. And when people are nervous they just stop moving, and that's where things start to slow down because orders are cancelled, orders are delayed from there it leads to layoffs, so the Trump administration isn't coming forward and saying okay we want this this and this. It's completely unclear what they're asking for. It is creating a lot of uncertainty but it's been this way since, basically since Trump was elected. He said April 2nd would be the day that he announced the tariff plan so everyone's just like okay, well I'm just going to wait until April 2nd to see what happens. Is Vietnam going to be targeted? Is Mexico being targeted? What is Vietnam going to look like in comparison to Malaysia and Indonesia? Now we've got more wait and see on top of that 'wait and see'."