Asian countries 'confused' [Now News]

The U.K.'s Financial Times says Asian countries are preparing for tariffs imposed by the second Trump administration.

Geneta, a freight rate analysis agency, predicted that transportation fees will soar as companies rush to send goods to the U.S. ahead of Trump's inauguration on January 20 next year.

"The response from U.S. carriers is to ship imports before new tariffs are imposed," said Geneta's chief analyst, adding that if there is warehouse space and goods to transport, shipping imports is the simplest way to manage this risk in the short term.President-elect Trump, who advocated

America First', vowed to impose a 60% tariff on all Chinese imports and also vowed to withdraw his status as the most favored nation (MFN) given to China.

The first Trump administration triggered an unprecedented U.S.-China trade war, which accelerated the flow of shifting supply chains to Southeast Asia or India.

Citibank estimated that tariff measures would reduce China's economic growth by 2.4 percentage points if China fails to divert some of its trade to other countries.

Trump also promised to impose tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on imports from all countries, not just China.

Japanese carmaker Honda said it feared Trump's threat to impose tariffs of more than 100% on cars imported from Mexico could have an "extremely large impact."

Honda's senior vice president told a news conference in Tokyo yesterday that if the tariffs were implemented, "we may have to consider moving production domestically or elsewhere in the United States."

Trump also accused Taiwanese companies of stealing the U.S. chip industry and told TSMC, the world's largest foundry (semiconductor consignment production) company, to "go back to your country," which has received billions of dollars in subsidies for large investments in the U.S.

In Southeast Asia, factories in China benefited from the relocation during Trump's first phase, but now it could become a U.S. trade target.Peter Mumpord, Southeast Asia director at

Eurasia Group, said: "More focus could be on trade imbalances with Southeast Asia. Vietnam's huge trade surplus with the U.S. could be a clear target," he pointed out.



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