{"id":55876,"date":"2025-04-08T15:30:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T22:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/asian-nations-fear-pain-from-us-tariffs-seek-ways-to-placate-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T15:30:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T22:30:22","slug":"asian-nations-fear-pain-from-us-tariffs-seek-ways-to-placate-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/asian-nations-fear-pain-from-us-tariffs-seek-ways-to-placate-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian nations fear pain from US tariffs, seek ways to placate Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated April 3, 2025, at 5:15 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

BANGKOK \u2013 U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping new tariffs are likely to cause particular pain in developing Asian countries that rely on export industries to raise living standards and provide jobs for young people.<\/p>\n

Southeast Asian nations were some of the hardest hit by the tariffs announced Wednesday, at nearly 50% in some cases. The tariffs will be paid by U.S. importers and could have a range of consequences \u2013 from higher prices for American consumers to falling incomes for the exporting nations. <\/p>\n

Video: China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Taiwan react to US tariffs.<\/figcaption><\/p>

China, the world\u2019s second-largest economy after the U.S., faces an additional 34% tariff on top of the 20% the U.S. imposed earlier this year when Trump demanded the country buy more U.S. goods and stop the flow of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina firmly opposes this and will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests,\u201d the country\u2019s commerce ministry said Thursday, accusing Trump of adopting bullying and damaging tactics.<\/p>\n

The tariff shock therapy is aimed at encouraging a revival of American manufacturing, which fell as a share of the economy and employment over several decades of global free trade and competition from production in lower-cost countries. <\/p>\n

Any changes could take years as many U.S. corporations have made substantial investments in overseas production. Manufacturing in the U.S., like elsewhere, also is reliant on components produced in other countries. <\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. tariffs announced by President Trump, April 2, 2025.<\/figcaption>(Oliver Zhou\/RFA)<\/small><\/figure>\n

\u2018A lot of Cambodians will lose their jobs\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

The 49% duties imposed on Cambodian exports will force the country\u2019s garment industry to slow to a near halt, according to Stephen Higgins, managing partner at Mekong Strategic Capital in Phnom Penh. <\/p>\n

The broader economy is likely to suffer since the garment and apparel industries contribute more than one third of Cambodia\u2019s gross domestic product. Higgins says production may shift to India, which only faces a 36% U.S. tariff and giving workers the skills to produce more high-end products may have little immediate impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short term, things like tech innovation and training just aren\u2019t going to shift the dial enough to help Cambodia, or any country, weather these punitive tariffs. Redirecting trade is going to take time, and in the interim, a lot of Cambodians who can least afford it are going to lose their jobs,\u201d Higgins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve learned, it is that Washington is highly unpredictable these days. Hopefully once constituents in red (Republican) seats start seeing prices go up, or they start suffering from retaliatory tariffs from the E.U., they\u2019ll put a lot of pressure on their representatives to do something about these tariffs. But I just don\u2019t see that happening overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Cambodia, very high tariffs were also imposed on two other least-developed countries in Southeast Asia: Laos at 48% and military-ruled Myanmar at 44%.<\/p>\n

\"Vietnamese
Vietnamese garment factory workers stitch apparel at a factory in Ho Chi Minh City on April 3, 2025.<\/figcaption>(Huu Kha\/AFP)<\/small><\/figure>\n

Vietnam stock market suffers record loss<\/b><\/p>\n

Stock markets across the region took a battering Thursday, particularly Vietnam where the main index closed 6.7 percent lower – its biggest one-day decline since September 2001, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Vietnam had the fourth-largest trade surplus with the U.S. last year at a record US$123 billion and faced growing pressure from Washington to lower it.<\/p>\n

Hanoi lobbied unsuccessfully to try to avoid higher tariffs. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met U.S. Ambassador Marc Knapper last month and promised higher imports of American products. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Vietnam cut import duties on some American fuel, automobile and agricultural products, but that did not stop Trump targeting the country\u2019s exporters with a 46% tariff, the second-highest in Asia.<\/p>\n

Chinh met with Trade and Industry Minister Nguyen Hong Dien on Thursday to discuss the impact on Vietnam\u2019s economy and to look for ways of reducing the trade surplus, Tien Phong<\/i><\/a> online reported.<\/p>\n

Trump has a track-record of abruptly raising and lowering tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico and, according to Tien Phong<\/i>, Vietnam\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc is hoping to persuade him to roll back import duties when he visits the U.S. capital next week.<\/p>\n

In Thailand, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said her government was working to help affected exporters and would set up a committee to negotiate with the U.S. over the 36% tariffs slapped on its exports.<\/p>\n

She said Thailand was willing to lower the 72% duties the U.S. says Thailand charges, which include the effect of currency manipulation and market barriers.<\/p>\n

Reactions not all negative<\/b><\/p>\n

The government of Taiwan, which is under increasing military pressure from China, described the 32% U.S. tariff on its exports as \u201cstrongly unreasonable and highly regrettable\u201d and said it would it would lodge \u201csolemn representations\u201d with the United States.<\/p>\n

The tariffs, however, do not cover semiconductors for which Taiwan is a leading global producer.<\/p>\n

Bucking the negative reactions in Asia to what Trump dubbed \u201cLiberation Day\u201d for the U.S. economy, the leader of the World Uyghur Congress, which advocates for the persecuted Muslim minority, welcomed the negative impact the tariffs would have on China.<\/p>\n

\"A
A worker prepares to cut a fabric next to Shein packaging in Guanyun county of Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, Nov. 25, 2024.<\/figcaption>(Florence Lo\/Reuters)<\/small><\/figure>\n

Rushan Abbas, the Washington-based group\u2019s executive chair, cited the elimination of the so-called de minimis rule, which had allowed goods worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. tariff-free. She said the rule had enable Chinese e-commerce giants like SHEIN and Temu to flood the U.S. market with goods made with Uyghur forced labor, which is prevented under U.S. law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese measures are critical not only to upholding the human rights of Uyghurs, who continue to endure genocide and state-imposed forced labor, but also to safeguard U.S. interests and national security,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

China is accused using the forced labor of Uyghurs, who have been subjected to mass internments in the Xinjiang region, to make products like garments, gloves and hair products that are sold internationally.<\/p>\n

RFA Mandarin and Uyghur services contributed reporting. Edited by Stephen Wright and Mat Pennington.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Updated to add details about Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar and including reactions from Taiwan and the World Uyghur Congress.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tin t\u1eeb RFA Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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