Asian economies geared for exports and facing some of the highest US "reciprocal" tariffs are leading the way over their western counterparts in trade negotiations with the Trump administration.
Past experience suggests comprehensive trade deals take many months if not years to complete - time that countries including South Korea, Japan and India don't have, given their shipments to the US face levies rising to near 25% in just over two months. Vietnam's is pegged at 46% and Thailand's at 36%.
What's looking likelier for these countries are smaller, interim accords aimed at staving off the snapback of the most punitive US tariffs before the 90-day grace period expires in early July. That would allow Trump to tout quick success in his disruptive trade policy.
Speaking Sunday on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there are 18 important US trading partners, including China which is undergoing a "special negotiation."
With the other 17, "We have a process in place, over the next 90 days, to negotiate with them," Bessent said. "Some of those are moving along very well, especially with the Asian countries."
Last week Bessent said the US and South Korea could reach an "agreement of understanding" on trade as soon as this week. Korean officials say they see early July as the initial deadline for any concrete deal to at least clinch tariff exemptions.
Expecting more than that appears overly optimistic. The US and South Korea signed a free-trade agreement in 2007 that required more than a year to hammer out and took until 2011 for Congress to ratify. It then was re-negotiated under the first Trump administration for several more months in 2018.
With the US and China still at an impasse and other major Asian economies charting a faster track, US trading partners in North America and Europe are still trying to understand the basic parameters. Those include the scope of talks and who's running trade policy in Washington, while sounding less worried about speed. To them, there are risks to seeking a first-mover advantage, and given Trump's impatience with China's determined response and resistance to talks unless Beijing's conditions are met, some sense patience is the more prudent approach.
Source Name : Economic Times