Trump’s tariffs on Cambodia deepen wounds of a scarred country

4 comments

1. ***From The Times:***

   Cambodia, one of Asia’s most aid-dependent countries, suffered a massive hit when the Trump administration ordered the closure of USAid and its programmes overseas.

   Now it has taken a second body blow, with the announcement of tariffs on exports of 49%, the highest of any country on the list brandished by the US president in the White House rose garden on Wednesday night.

   The US is by far Cambodia’s largest export market, with 37.9% of its products sent abroad going there, mostly from the garment factories ringing Phnom Penh which act as a magnet for the country’s job-seeking youth.

   Trump accused much of the world of ripping America off. However, Cambodia’s alleged crime is the vast differential between the scale of its exports to the USA: some $9.9bn a year, dwarfing the $264m American goods it imports.

   “It’s very simple,” explains Ponnary, a trader in Phnom Penh’s Russian Market. “We are a poor country. Almost nobody here can afford anything the Americans make.”

2. Cambodia was just starting to look away from China, with whom it has been incredibly close and dependent on recently. This could have been a golden opportunity to get another foothold in the region, as Cambodia is effectively open to the highest bidder.

   Good luck breaking China’s hold on the region now.

3. Trump is just giving the world away to China (and Russia—of course!)

4. And Laos. Bomb and mine them to smithereens and and now apply crushing tariffs on them. Wouldn’t want to be American tourists travelling to SE Asian in the upcoming years

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