Malaysia’s trade minister says companies will inevitably need to build two supply chains to cater to both US and Chinese demands
For many manufacturers, the most urgent questions are suddenly existential: where to build, what to make and, crucially, who to sell to.
Trump has defended the tariffs he imposed indiscriminately on friends and rivals alike as essential for reducing America’s multibillion-dollar trade deficits, accusing trading partners of having taken the world’s largest consumer market “for a ride”.
Yet analysts agree that the true target was China, America’s strategic adversary, placing Southeast Asia – and transshipment hubs like Malaysia and Vietnam especially – in the crosshairs of a global economic realignment.
For decades, the region’s prosperity has depended on its role as a manufacturing base for global giants, serving both the US and China.
