Hitched to Trump’s tariff roller coaster, anxious Asean ministers meet in Malaysia

Southeast Asia’s economic ministers met in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to discuss US President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff regime, which in the space of a week veered between 49 and 10 per cent levies on its member states, horrifying exporters and paralysing economic planning.

Malaysia, this year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), hosted the meeting that came just hours after Trump announced a three-month pause to the reciprocal levies he had slapped on countries worldwide with great fanfare on April 2.

It was a U-turn after days of market chaos that he indicated was needed to calm global bourses after trillions of dollars were wiped out in upheaval caused by his “Liberation Day” tariffs. A baseline 10 per cent tariff remained in force on nearly all goods imported to the US.

His helter-skelter wielding of tariffs has baffled Southeast Asian exporters and left their leaders in a spin, unsure whether to swiftly negotiate free access to more US goods to lower trade deficits – or ride out the storm.

“Nothing is certain but uncertainty when it comes to Trump tariffs!” Malaysia’s Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said on Thursday in a post across his social media accounts.

More than half of Asean’s 10 members were ranked among the “worst offenders” by Washington for holding the greatest trade surpluses with America, a hit list wielded by Trump on his heavily-trailed “Liberation Day” stunt.

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Малайзия Политика

Дональд Трамп тарифный побережье роллер АСЕАН тревожный министр ошибочный экономика четверг