No time for complacency: 'Asia for Asia' will take time: Governments, companies and investors should anticipate and strategize responses proactively
- noemieviterale
- Oct 3
- 1 min read
Steven Okun is CEO of APAC Advisors, a geostrategic consultancy headquartered in Singapore who served in the Clinton administration. Stephen Olson is a Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and a non-resident fellow and visiting lecturer at the Yeutter Institute of International Trade who served as a U.S. trade negotiator. APAC Advisors associate Noemie Viterale contributed to this commentary.
MAGA may end up standing for "Make Asia Great Again."
But not anytime soon.
The chaos ushered in by the America First reciprocal tariff regime -- and the ensuing frenetic rush to conclude deals against the backdrop of constantly shifting deadlines -- settles down.
Now, countries search for alternate markets, given the clarity that the newly imposed U.S. tariffs and President Donald Trump's willingness to use the U.S.'s economic might to drive deals are likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future.
A degree of optimism creeps into the region with the belief that new trading partners can be found to make up the difference. That may turn out to happen, but not anytime soon. For now, premature optimism displaces a clinical and realistic analysis of global markets. The ripple effects from the Trump administration's demolition of the rules-based global trade system have only begun. Significantly greater trade disruptions and market turmoil are forecast.
