Washington’s latest duties target some of Beijing’s most important partners, pressuring Asean and fuelling trade tensions, analysts warn
When US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to extend a pause on “reciprocal” tariffs until August 1, it offered little comfort to China.
Instead, Beijing’s policymakers may feel increasingly cornered, as Washington also moved to target 14 countries – many of them China’s close trading partners – with tariffs of up to 40 per cent.
Analysts said the latest US tariff package was a calculated strategy to isolate China and strengthen Washington’s position in coming trade negotiations, as the 90-day trade truce agreed in May is set to expire in early August.
“Trump’s newly announced tariffs ... are a continuation of this decoupling agenda,” said Xu Weijun, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy at South China University of Technology.
