Asian Countries Combat US Tariffs

In the week of July 7th, 2025, Asian countries have begun retaliating against US tariffs imposed by President Trump. China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, among others, are fortifying their country’s own economic development while filling in each other’s supply and demand gaps where the US had once occupied. To do so, Asian countries under threat of steep tariffs have decided to diversify their customer bases, trading amongst each other.

According to Lydia DePillis The New York Times, smaller countries are also trying to increase citizen income by fostering homegrown enterprises. However, the economic solidarity is broken by South Korea and Japan, who still believe themselves to be trading partners with the U.S. despite the economic downturn they face. Byung-il Choi, a South Korean economist and former trade negotiator said to The New York Times: “Japan and Korea believed that we are a staunch, ironclad ally of the U.S., but Donald Trump doesn’t believe in allies.”

According to the Time Magazine, the tariffs started as part of a trade war the U.S. waged against almost every country outside of the E.U., raising tariffs on goods from Mexico, India and China, which officially started the trade war. China has tried to establish factories and trading hubs in Southeastern countries like Vietnam and Malaysia to feed their export-based economy, extract cheap labor and continue trade to the US through a third party. These countries, however, were later put on tariff threats of their own: according to The Economist, President Trump “threatened an extra 10% tariff on countries aligned with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS group,” a group established in 2009 to dethrone the American dollar.

Facing this pressure, southeastern countries decided to develop their inner trade and commerce. “They need to internalize some industrial technology from the foreign direct investment,” said Kim Dongsoo, a senior research fellow with the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade. Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia, said at a gathering of Southeast Asian leaders on Wednesday, “As we navigate external pressures, we need to fortify our foundations. Trade among ourselves. Invest more in one another.”

The continuous trade between South Korea and the U.S., however, raises concern on economic unity. Despite his efforts to make his country join the Asian alliance on combating US Tariffs, South Korean connections to the US cannot be easily swayed. This makes unification of Asian countries especially hard. According to The New York Times, “it could be advantageous for the countries that have become the targets of Mr . Trump’s tariff campaign to come up with a more collective response.” Alexander Hynd, an assistant professor at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, said to The New York Times, “I haven’t seen indications that Southeast Asian nations are trying to join together.”

Whether South Korea will continue trade with the U.S. still remains a mystery. But one thing is for certain: Asian countries are slowly rising in their attempt to retaliate against the steep U.S. tariffs.

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Sources:

https://time.com/7292207/us-china-trade-war-trump-tariffs-timeline/

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/07/08/trumps-trade-deals-try-a-creative-way-to-hobble-china