Hunch. On 14 October Vietnam said it had sent the final text, but US officials only said they were hopeful and warned about the trade gap.
The trade deal market resolves YES if by the end of 31 December, Washington time, the US and Vietnamese governments have signed the text of a two-way trade deal, while a framework, a joint statement or word that the deal is finished is NO. It is judged on a USTR or US presidential release, confirmed by Reuters, read through The Straits Times if Reuters does not open, with Reuters and AP as backup.
We looked for cases where US law forced the trade office to open an investigation, because it had just named that country a priority foreign country. We checked what it decided in the first six months. We found five such investigations from 1993 to 2013: Brazil, China, Paraguay and Ukraine twice.