Global EditionASIA 中文雙語(yǔ)Fran?ais
    World
    Home / World / Asia-Pacific

    Levies to hit SE Asia economies

    By PRIME SARMIENTO in Hong Kong | China Daily | Updated: 2025-04-05 06:51
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    Vietnamese garment factory workers stitch apparel at a factory in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday. HUU KHA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

    Higher-than-expected new tariffs unveiled by the United States are likely to hurt Southeast Asian economies, analysts warn, saying that the region has long relied on free trade to boost its growth.

    The impact of Washington's so-called reciprocal tariffs would be uneven among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, they said.

    Vietnam and Thailand, which have bigger export sectors, are expected to bear more of the brunt of the increased tariffs. Meanwhile, the impact on the Philippines and Singapore would be limited as these two countries were slapped with relatively lower rates.

    US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order for "reciprocal tariffs", imposing a 10-percent "minimum baseline tariff" on all imports to the US and higher rates on certain trading partners. The tariff hike will take effect as early as Saturday.

    Trump, who delivered a speech at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington DC, presented a chart on "reciprocal tariffs" which showed that different countries and regions face different tariff rates.

    For example, China will face a 34-percent tariff while a 20-percent duty will be imposed on the European Union.

    In the case of ASEAN, Cambodia was slapped with the highest rate at 49 percent, followed by Laos at 48 percent, Vietnam 46 percent, Myanmar 44 percent, Thailand 36 percent, Indonesia 32 percent, Brunei 24 percent, Malaysia 24 percent, and the Philippines 17 percent.

    Singapore, ASEAN's key trading and finance center, was not slapped with a specific tariff apart from the universal 10 percent tariff that will be imposed on all countries.

    "The ASEAN economies we cover were hard hit by tariffs as we had expected, but the magnitude of the hit is much larger than we (envisaged)," Lavanya Venkateswaran, senior ASEAN economist at the Singapore-based OCBC Bank, wrote in her research note.

    Venkateswaran estimates that Vietnam's exports to the US, which would be the hardest hit by reciprocal tariffs, would go down by as much as 35 percent to 40 percent this year.

    Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Nimul said the country is actively addressing concerns over the newly imposed 49 percent US tariffs on Cambodian goods, AKP reported.

    She said Cambodia does not impose a 97 percent tariff on US imports, as Washington claimed. Instead, Cambodia adheres to World Trade Organization regulations, with its highest tariff on US goods set at 29.4 percent — well below the WTO's allowable limit of 35 percent.

    Voicing concerns

    Son Nguyen, a lecturer of logistics and supply chain management at the RMIT University Vietnam, raised concerns over the significant tariffs imposed on Vietnam's goods.

    Ahead of the US tariff announcement, Vietnam on March 31 cut import taxes on key goods such as automobiles and ethanol. The import taxes on wood and wooden products were eliminated totally, from the previous rates of 20-25 percent.

    Yet these measures failed to shield Vietnam from the new US tariff measure. The Trump administration has accused Vietnam of imposing a 90 percent tariff on US imports and announced a "reciprocal tariff" of 46 percent on Vietnamese exports.

    "Vietnam, and many countries on the list, will need to think long and hard (about) their relationships with the US," Son told China Daily.

    Lawrence Loh, director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore's Business School, said the tariffs will backfire and marginalize US influence in the Asian region, including in ASEAN.

    Loh said Washington's latest announcement showed that the US "will only advance self-interest with no consideration for exercising its global responsibilities as the world's largest economy and superpower".

    Even before Trump announced the new tariffs, ASEAN has been wary of increased trade protectionism.

    According to "The State of Southeast Asia: 2025 Survey Report", over 40 percent of 2,023 respondents said they prefer ASEAN members to accelerate regional integration when confronting rising protectionism and nationalism around the world.

    The ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore conducted the survey from January to February. The report was presented on Thursday via a webinar in Singapore.

    Yenny Wahid, director of the Jakarta-based nonprofit Wahid Foundation, said at the report's presentation that this is a good time to focus on ASEAN centrality, noting that the US' latest trade policy has shown that the region "can no longer rely on superpowers. So, we need to devise our own ways to strengthen the region".

    Yang Han and Xu Weiwei in Hong Kong contributed to this story.

    Most Viewed in 24 Hours
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    无码夫の前で人妻を犯す中字| 亚洲成A人片在线观看无码不卡| 亚洲精品无码成人片久久| 亚洲国产av无码精品| 无码精品A∨在线观看| 中文字幕在线免费看线人| 最近的中文字幕在线看视频| 波多野42部无码喷潮在线| 亚洲自偷自偷偷色无码中文 | 佐佐木明希一区二区中文字幕| 69天堂人成无码麻豆免费视频| 一区二区三区无码视频免费福利| 精品999久久久久久中文字幕| 亚洲av麻豆aⅴ无码电影| 久久无码人妻一区二区三区| 亚洲日韩乱码中文无码蜜桃臀网站| 久久99中文字幕久久| 欧美乱人伦中文字幕在线| 久久久精品人妻无码专区不卡 | 亚洲中文字幕无码永久在线| 天堂а√中文在线| 无码AV中文一区二区三区| 亚洲精品无码专区久久同性男| 久久精品无码一区二区app| 国产AV一区二区三区无码野战| 小13箩利洗澡无码视频网站| 一本加勒比HEZYO无码资源网| 无码av高潮喷水无码专区线| 亚洲国产综合精品中文字幕| 欧美日韩中文字幕在线观看| 中文无码精品一区二区三区| 中文字幕精品视频在线| 熟妇人妻中文av无码| 国产又爽又黄无码无遮挡在线观看| 中文字幕日韩理论在线| 中文无码vs无码人妻| 中文字幕无码无码专区| 亚洲AV日韩AV永久无码下载| 日韩国产精品无码一区二区三区| 久久精品亚洲中文字幕无码麻豆| av区无码字幕中文色|