The escalating tariff war led by US President Donald Trump is a “lose-lose game” for all parties involved, said Lawrence Loh, Professor of Strategy & Policy at the National University of Singapore, in an interview with CNBC-TV18. He noted that no country gains in a tariff environment. \u201cWhat China is trying to do is actually minimise the damage for itself,\u201d Loh said, adding that even transshipment routes are being closely monitored by the US to block workarounds.<\/p>\n
Professor Loh pointed out that a coordinated ASEAN response is unlikely despite the shared pressure, as each country has vastly different trade relationships with the US. \u201cA common approach is practically impossible because each country is so diverse in terms of trade,\u201d he said. For instance, Vietnam has the highest surplus with the US, while Singapore runs a deficit.<\/p>\n
As negotiations continue, China could face the highest tariffs\u2014potentially between 30% and 50%\u2014if no deal is reached, Loh said. India too could be hit with a 26% tariff by August 1 unless it signs a deal with the US. \u201cThat 26% is actually quite high\u2014almost comparable to the current 25% for Japan,\u201d he warned.
Although some believe India could benefit as other Asian exporters face higher tariffs, Loh cautioned that the advantage is not guaranteed. \u201cIf no deal is struck with the US, the advantages for India will not really exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Supply chains across Asia are expected to feel the strain of these tariffs, which Loh described as adding an \u201cartificially added price\u201d to goods. \u201cThis will make it very difficult for many companies to continue to operate in such a setting,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has given what Loh described as an \u201cultimatum\u201d to 14 countries, urging them to negotiate or face steep duties. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like take it or leave it, and many countries will just have to play by the rules,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Watch the accompanying video for more<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The escalating tariff war led by US President Donald Trump is a “lose-lose game” for all parties involved,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,37760,69,79,33755,37761,37759,36732,37762,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-49859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-china-tariffs","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-india-us-trade-deal","13":"tag-lawrence-loh","14":"tag-trump-tariff-war","15":"tag-trump-tariffs","16":"tag-trump-trade-negotiations","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114820067089460455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}