Opinion | Trump is bringing the trade war to Southeast Asia. Asean must act

Opinion | Trump is bringing the trade war to Southeast Asia. Asean must act

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The United States is waging war on global trade and Southeast Asia is likely to be its next target. Yet the recently concluded Asean Economic Ministers’ Retreat in Malaysia showed little sign of a coordinated strategy to counter the potential US pressure.
Absent a unified front to deter US President Donald Trump’s trade policies, each nation will stand or fall on its own – posing serious trouble for the utility of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the region’s economic growth.

In this new world economic order, the Trump administration believes in a peculiar kind of winning – if it isn’t good for America, it isn’t any good. Washington is no longer the standard bearer of a global free trade based on rules, but one run by the dictates of a single leader.

Surplus and deficit are the two measures by which this trade battle will be judged, with nations expected to buy more US goods or make them in America, otherwise their exports face steep penalties and potentially high tariffs.

The Trump administration’s tactics are clearly unconventional, perhaps even impractical in their most outlandish forms. Reciprocal tariffs for every country in the world would pose a herculean administrative burden on a federal government undergoing dramatic downsizing.

US consumers are the ones most likely to face higher prices. But that’s not a concern in the White House, at least for now. And as the foundations of international trade shift, smaller economies like those in Southeast Asia will face Trump’s increasingly aggressive tactics in an attempt to sway economic advantage back to US shores.



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