US tariff tensions test Southeast Asian leaders at regional summit

US tariff tensions test Southeast Asian leaders at regional summit

KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asian leaders will express deep concern over US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz when they meet at a summit on Monday (May 26), warning that the unilateral move poses huge challenges to economic growth and stability in the region, according to a draft statement seen by AFP.

Trump’s tariffs have roiled global markets and upended international commerce, and left leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) scrambling for ways to limit the fallout on their trade-dependent economies.

The bloc is also caught between the trade battle between their biggest trading partners, the United States and China, on which Washington has heaped the highest tariffs.

According to a draft statement expected to be issued by ASEAN leaders after they meet on Monday, they express “deep concern … over the imposition of unilateral tariff measures”.

Trump’s measures “pose complex and multidimensional challenges to ASEAN’s economic growth, stability, and integration”, according to the draft of the ASEAN chairman’s statement seen by AFP.

The leaders also “reaffirmed ASEAN’s collective commitment” to the global free trading system, it said.

After the bloc’s meeting on Monday, the leaders are to hold a one-day summit with China and Middle Eastern oil producers.

The diplomatic dance continues later in the week in neighbouring Singapore, where the Shangri-La Dialogue forum is expected to draw defence chiefs, including US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, while French President Emmanuel Macron was due to give the keynote speech.

Source: CNA