<figure id="attachment_2990879" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2990879" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-2990879 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/0578814e-6400193_1_1600x1000_1.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2990879" class="wp-caption-text">Southeast Asian countries came in for harsh treatment, with Vietnam hit with a 46% levy and Cambodia 49%. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
TOKYO: Asia&#8217;s manufacturing powerhouses were desperately seeking talks with Washington today after Donald Trump announced 10% &#8220;reciprocal&#8221; tariffs, and even more for some longtime US allies.
These include Japan, whose firms are the biggest investors in the US but which was saddled with a 24% levy on its imports into the world&#8217;s biggest economy.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba promised Trump in February a trillion dollars in investments, while the US president said Japan would partner in a &#8220;gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska&#8221;.
Ishiba called the tariffs announcement &#8220;extremely regrettable&#8221; and the government was tight-lipped about any retaliatory measures.
Japan has also failed to win exclusion from 25% tariffs on car imports into the US that bit today.
Those also hit South Korea, another close US ally which was saddled with new tariffs of 26% today.
Acting President Han Duck-soo said &#8220;the global tariff war has become a reality&#8221;, instructing his trade minister to &#8220;actively engage in negotiations with the US to minimise damage&#8221;.
Taiwan chips
Trump also saddled Taiwan with a 32% tax, although all-important semiconductor chips were excluded.
Taiwan had also pledged increased investment in the US, more purchases of US energy and greater defence spending.
The government found the tariffs &#8220;highly unreasonable and deeply regretted it, and will initiate serious negotiations with the US&#8221;, cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee said.
The US has been Australia&#8217;s strongest military ally since World War II but its exports there will also be subject to a 10% tax.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would not retaliate but called Trump&#8217;s move &#8220;unwarranted&#8221;.
&#8220;This is not the act of a friend,&#8221; Albanese said.
However, ANZ Bank agribusiness analyst Michael Whitehead said Australia had, in some ways, gotten off lightly.
&#8220;10% on Australian beef at the moment, it&#8217;s better than a lot of people were expecting &#8211; or less worse, let&#8217;s call it,&#8221; he told AFP.
Trump unveiled tariffs of 34% on China, one of its largest trading partners, on top of a 20% rate imposed last month.
China had responded to those with levies of up to 15% on a range of US agricultural goods.
&#8220;There is no winner in a trade war,&#8221; Beijing said today.
The commerce ministry said it will &#8220;resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests&#8221; and that the levies &#8220;do not comply with international trade rules&#8221;.
The commerce ministry also said at a weekly briefing today that the two sides were &#8220;maintaining communication&#8221;.
&#8216;Massive blow&#8217;
In South Asia, Indian exporters expressed some relief that the flat 26% on exports imposed on the fifth-largest economy could have been far worse.
&#8220;Many countries which we compete with globally, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam etc, have been hit harder than us,&#8221; Ajay Sahai from the Federation of Indian Export Organisations told AFP.
India&#8217;s government was yet to comment.
Bangladeshi textile industry leaders called the US tariffs a &#8220;massive blow&#8221; to the world&#8217;s second-largest garment manufacturer.
Trump slapped new tariffs of 37% on Bangladesh, hiking duty from the previous 16% on cotton and 32% on polyester products.
Southeast Asian countries came in for harsh treatment, with Vietnam hit with a 46% levy and Cambodia 49%.
Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse heavily reliant on exports, said this week it had cut import duties on a range of goods in an apparent attempt to head off new tariffs.
Washington&#8217;s trade deficit with Vietnam &#8211; a major beneficiary of the trade war between Beijing and Washington during Trump&#8217;s first term &#8211; is its third highest.
Deputy finance minister Julapun Amornvivat said Thailand would &#8220;negotiate with understanding, not aggressive talk.
&#8220;However, we have to talk which products they feel are unfair and we have to see whether we can adjust,&#8221; Amornvivat said
Australia also expressed puzzlement about a 29% tariff on its tiny Pacific territory of Norfolk Island, home to a little over 2,000 people.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the US,&#8221; Albanese said.
Trump also slapped 10% on Australia&#8217;s Heard and McDonald Islands territory in the sub-Antarctic, inhabited by penguins but not people.

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