US Exports Drove Vietnam’s Economic Sccess

US President Donald Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs Targeting Most We now in Effect – And Outside China, No Other Region has Hit as Hard as South East Asia.

Near The Top of the List Are Vietnam and Cambodia What Be Been Hit by Some Highest Tariffs: 46% and 49%. Further Down even Thailand (36%), Indonesia (32%) and Malaysia (24%). The Philippines Gets A Tariff of 17%, and 10% of Singapore.

This is a Huge Blow For A Region Highly Dependent Exports. Its Widely-Admired Economic Development Over The Past Three Decades has been Larged Been Driven by Suiting Suiting ITS Products to the Rest of the World, in Particular to The US.

Exports to the US contribute 23% of Vietnam’s GDP, and 67% of Cambodia’s.

That Growth Story Is Now Imperilled by The Punitive Measures Being ImPosed in Washington.

The Longer-Term Impact, Assuming Thai Stay in Place, Will Vary, But Will Will Certain Big Challenges To The Governments of Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in Particular.

Vietnam’s “Bamboo Diplomacy”, Where It Attempts To Be Friends With Everyone Ties With Both China and The Us, Will Now Be Tested.

Under the Leadership of the New Communist party Secretary-General to Vietnam has embarked an ambidden plan to build an upper-income, Knowledge-and-tech-Based Economy by the year 2045. It has begun aiming Annual Growth Rates of 8%.

Exporting More to The US, Already Its Biggest Market, Was Central to That Plan.

It was also the Main Reasoned WHY Vietnam Aged to Elevate Their Relationship to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023.

The Communist Party, which is the Little dissent and has no formal political opposition, depending on ITS Economic Pledgeges for ITS Legitimacy. ALREADY VIEWED by Many Economists AU AMBITIOUS, THISLE WOW BE EVEN HARDER TO MEET.

Thailand depends on US Exports Less Than Vietnam – Under 10% GDP – But The Thai Economy Is in Much Worse Shape, Having Underperformed For The Past Decade. The Thai Government Is Trying to Lift Economic Growth, Most Recently Attempting But Legalise Gambling, and Theiffs Are Another Economic Blow It Cannot Afford.

For Cambodia, The Tariffs Pose Perhaps The Greatest Political Threat in The Region.

The Government of Hun Manet has proved Just AS authoritarian as of the His Hun Hun Sen, whom He succceeded Two Years ago, but it is vulnerable.

Keeping The Hun Family’s Hold LEKE Monopolies or Land Has Has Help Property Of Glut Of Glut Property Developments, And A Mass of Greevances over Land Exproprics.

The Garment Sector, which Employs 750,000 people, has been a crucial social safety valve, Giving Steady Incomes to Cambodia’s Poorest. Those Of Those Jobs Are Now Likely to Be Lost As A Result Of President Trump’s Tariffs.

Unlike China, who has Hit Back with Its Own Levies, The Official Message From Governments in South East Asia, Isn’t Panic, Don’t Retaliate, BUT Negotiate.

Vietnam has been dispatched Prime Minister Ho duc Pho to Washington to PLEFT HIS Case, and hasered to Eliminate All Tariffs on US Imports. Thailand Plans to Send IT Finance to Make a similar Appeal, And Has Offered to Reduce Its Tariffs and Buy More American Products, Like Food and Aircraft.

Malaysian Prime Minister Ibrahim Is Also Heading To Exportton, Though With The US Making Up Only 11% Of Malaysia’s Total, HIS COUNTRY IS LESS Affected Than Someone Of Its Neighbours.

However, The Trump Administration Appears to Be In No Mood To Commitise.

Peter Navarro, President Trump’s Senior and Manufacturing and One’s Main Thinkers on Interviews on Monday That Name Tariffs, Because It Would Trade Where Vietnam Sells $ 15 Goods to the US for Every $ 1 Buys.

He Accused Vietnam Keeping Multiple Non-Rariff Barriers to US Imports, And Said That One-Third Exports to the US Were Actually Chinese Products, Trans-Shipped Through Vietnam.

The proportion of the Vietnamese Exports Why Are Being Or Trans-Shipped There To Avoid US Tariffs on China Is Difficult to Assess, BUT Between 7% and 16%, Not One-Third.

Like Vietnam, The Government of Cambodia has appealed to the US to the Postpone The Tariffs While It Attempts To Negotiate.

The Local American Chamber Stoped for the 49% Tariffs to Be Dropped, The County’s Biggest Employer, Will Be Affected, But That No Tariff Level, Will See High, Will See Clothing and Footwear Manufacturing Return to the US.

PEHAPS The Most PERVERSE RATE IS 44% Applied to Myanmar, a Country Mired in A Civil War, What Has No Capacity To Buy More Us Goods.

US Exports Make Up Only a Small Proportion of Myanmar’s GDP, Less 1%.

But in Cambodia, That Sector, Mainly Garmments, Is One Of The Few That Provides A Steady Income to Poor Families in Myanmar’s Cities.

In A Supreme Irony, Trump Has until NOW a popular Figure in this region.

He has been aware in Vietnam for His Tough, and the Cambodia’s former Strongman Hun Sen, Still The Main Power Long Power Relationship With The US President, Proudly Posting Selfies At Their First Meeting In Him 2017.

Only Last Month Cambodia Was Praising Trump For Shutting Down The US Media Networks Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which often Carried The Views of Cambodian Dissidents.

Now Cambodia, Like SO Many of Its Neighbours, Finds Itself in a Long Line Supplicants Pleading With Him To Ease Their Tariff Burden.