Economic ministers of the ASEAN regional bloc committed yesterday “to not impose any retaliatory measures” against the US over sweeping tariffs and said they were ready to engage in talks.
The ministers said retaliation would not be beneficial as the US was ASEAN’s biggest source of foreign direct investments and second-largest trading partner last year.
“ASEAN, being the fifth-largest economy in the world, is deeply concerned over the recent introduction of unilateral tariffs by the US, including the tariffs announced on 2 April 2025 and subsequently the most recent suspension on 9 April 2025,” the ministers said in a statement issued after a video conference meeting.
Photo: AFP
Despite that, the ministers said they were ready “to engage in a frank and constructive dialogue with the US to address trade-related concerns.”
“Open communication and collaboration will be crucial to ensuring a balanced and sustainable relationship. In that spirit, ASEAN commits to not impose any retaliatory measures in response to the US tariffs,” they said.
The special meeting was chaired by Malaysian Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz. Malaysia holds the rotating chair of the regional bloc, which is home to more than 650 million people.
ASEAN members, which count on the US as their main export market, were among those hit with the toughest levies by US President Donald Trump.
Manufacturing powerhouse Vietnam was hit with a 46 percent tariff on exports to the US, while neighboring Cambodia — a major producer of low-cost clothing for big Western brands — was slapped with a 49 percent duty.
The other ASEAN members hit with hefty tariffs are Laos (48 percent), Myanmar (44 percent), Thailand (36 percent) and Indonesia (32 percent).
Malaysia was hit with a lower tariff of 24 percent and Brunei also faces a 24 percent tariff, while the Philippines was hit with 17 percent and Singapore 10 percent.
Following chaos in the global markets, Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday welcomed Trump’s decision to temporarily halt most US tariffs.
The EU’s executive commission said yesterday it would put trade retaliation measures on hold for 90 days to match Trump’s pause on his sweeping new tariffs and leave room for a negotiated solution.
Von der Leyen said that the commission, which handles trade for the bloc’s 27 member countries, “took note of the announcement by President Trump.”
New tariffs on 20.9 billion euros (US$23 billion) of US goods will be put on hold for 90 days because “we want to give negotiations a chance,” she said in a statement.
However, she warned: “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in.”
Before Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, EU member countries voted to approve retaliatory tariffs on US$23 billion in goods in response to his 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. The tariffs were set to go into effect in stages, some on Tuesday next week and others on May 15 and Dec. 1.
Additional reporting by AP
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to