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View all search resultsASEAN unity at stake
Rather than mirroring the geo-economic fragmentation besetting the world, member states need to come together and negotiate favorable trade terms for the region as a whole.
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Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro (center) hosts an informal consultation on July 21, 2026, during the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay, Metro Manila. (Reuters/Pool/Francis R. Malasig)
W
e have become used to living in a world that is divided rather than united by trade. Economic unilateralism is prospering in the absence of a fair and nonpartisan arbiter because the World Trade Organization, which never quite achieved that status anyway, is useless in its current state.
Nothing is off-limits: tariffs and nontariff barriers (NTBs), subsidies and incentives, export bans, unilateral sanctions or any other tool in the box of neo-mercantilism.
Complicating matters further, global supply chains are increasingly viewed through how they benefit one or the other of the two economic superpowers, the United States or China, though the blunt reality of this zero-sum game is usually hidden behind benign-sounding neologisms like “friendshoring”.
In such a world of geo-economic fragmentation, the last thing ASEAN needs is economic infighting.
We might not be there yet, but there is clearly something brewing that one might call investment nationalism, where the region’s leaders pitch their own countries as the best place for foreign investment at the expense of fellow member states.
To be clear, competition is natural and can bring out the best in countries and in people. But it can also bring out the worst. Rivalry between ASEAN countries is unavoidable, especially between those with similar economic structures vying for the same spots in global supply chains.
But we should resist explicit, crowd-pleasing rhetoric that can cause resentment among neighbors, such as when Jakarta publicly urged Toyota to consider shifting its regional production base from Thailand to Indonesia last month, with Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa offering the Japanese carmaker “every incentive you want”.
