TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsASEAN cracks under Trump’s ‘divide and conquer’ tariff
Experts have said there is little chance ASEAN could pursue joint arrangements like the EU, despite surface similarities between the two blocs.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Log on: Cranes manage a cargo of logs on May 22, 2024, at Tanjung Emas Port in Semarang, Central Java. (Antara/Makna Zaezar)
S
outheast Asian nations have been pitted against one another as United States President Donald Trump’s global tariff offensive has pushed them to pursue individual deals and outbid their neighbors, a move experts say exposes ASEAN’s internal divisions and undermines efforts to pursue joint arrangements like those of the European Union (EU).
“Trump’s ‘divide and conquer’ tactic appears to have succeeded,” Deborah Elms, trade head of the Hinrich Foundation, told The Jakarta Post on Monday, citing the region’s diversity and uneven tariff offers. But it was “perhaps not surprising”.
The tactic has resulted in an average US tariff of 19 percent for the region that collectively relies on manufacturing and exports to drive their over US$3.8 trillion economies.
ASEAN’s ability to take a unified stance as a bloc is constrained by its members’ divergent trade priorities and dependencies, according to Denis Depoux, global managing director and Asia head at Roland Berger.
Member states have “heterogeneous export dependency on the US, varied trade ties with China, differing roles in the transit of Chinese goods to the rest of the world and a wide array of diverging trade interests to protect,” Depoux told the Post on Friday.
“This, despite alliances like ASEAN, RCEP and CPTPP, is not conducive to a common position that could reinforce bargaining power with Washington.”
Southeast Asian nations vied to offer concessions and secure deals with the US, the region’s top export market, while positioning themselves as alternative hubs to stave off the risk of multinational firms shifting operations and orders elsewhere.
