{"id":2321,"date":"2025-07-08T19:16:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/asean-hits-back-at-trumps-counterproductive-trade-tactics-warns-of-regional-instability\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:16:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:16:49","slug":"asean-hits-back-at-trumps-counterproductive-trade-tactics-warns-of-regional-instability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/asean-hits-back-at-trumps-counterproductive-trade-tactics-warns-of-regional-instability\/","title":{"rendered":"Asean hits back at Trump\u2019s \u2018counterproductive\u2019 trade tactics, warns of regional instability"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — South-east Asian nations will express “concern” over “counterproductive” US tariffs, according to a draft statement shared with AFP today, after Donald Trump threatened more than a dozen countries with higher levies.<\/p>\n

The president’s trade war will likely be high on the agenda as foreign ministers from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) gather in Kuala Lumpur for talks this week.<\/p>\n

“We expressed concern over rising global trade tensions and growing uncertainties in the international economic landscape, particularly the unilateral actions relating to tariffs,” Asean foreign ministers said, according to a draft Joint Communique.<\/p>\n

Without directly naming the United States, the ministers said tariffs were “counterproductive and risk exacerbating global economic fragmentation and pose complex challenges to Asean’s economic stability and growth”.<\/p>\n

Trump sent letters to 14 countries announcing that duties he had suspended in April would snap back — even more steeply — in three weeks.<\/p>\n

Among those targeted were top trade partners Japan and South Korea, which each face 25 per cent tariffs.<\/p>\n

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Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar — all members of the Asean — face duties ranging from 25 per cent to 40 per cent if they do not strike a deal with Washington by August 1.<\/p>\n

Export-dependent Vietnam, which is also an Asean member, is one of only two countries to have reached a tentative agreement that spares it from Trump’s measures.<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join his Asean counterparts on Thursday and Friday as part of his first trip to Asia since taking his post.<\/p>\n

‘Uplifting’ message?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rubio will likely tell leaders that the United States wanted to “rebalance” its trade relationships, a senior State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

His visit coincides with that of his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi.<\/p>\n

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But an analyst told AFP that Rubio is expected to play a placating role after Trump’s latest tariff announcements.<\/p>\n

“We can be hopeful for an uplifting message by Rubio, which reaffirms the importance of South-east Asia to US foreign policy,” said Mustafa Izzuddin, an international affairs analyst with consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore.<\/p>\n

But he added: “Deepening engagement of the US in South-east Asia may be stymied by Trump’s transactional approach to internationalism.”<\/p>\n

The US leader had unveiled sweeping tariffs on imports on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2, including a baseline 10 per cent tariff on all countries.<\/p>\n

But after turmoil on markets he quickly suspended all those above 10 per cent for 90 days to allow for talks.<\/p>\n

At a summit in late May, South-east Asian leaders expressed their deep concern at Trump’s protectionist offensive.<\/p>\n

The tariffs were due to kick back in tomorrow and Trump sent the letters in advance of that deadline.<\/p>\n

Malaysia’s trade ministry said today it would continue negotiations to reach “a balanced, mutually beneficial, and comprehensive trade agreement”.<\/p>\n

Thailand’s acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters today he wanted a “better deal”, adding that “the most important thing is that we maintain good relations with the US”. — AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Asean hits back at Trump’s ‘counterproductive’ trade tactics, warns of regional instability<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — South-east Asian nations will express “concern” over “counterproductive” US tariffs, according to a draft statement shared with AFP today, after Donald Trump threatened more than a dozen countries with higher levies. The president’s trade war will likely be high on the agenda as foreign ministers from the Association of South-east…<\/p>\n

Read More “Asean hits back at Trump\u2019s \u2018counterproductive\u2019 trade tactics, warns of regional instability”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}