含羞草社区

The global tariff war launched by the US has left companies in Asia bewildered and blindsided, triggering a rush to hedge risks by all legal means. Asia Business Law Journal staff report

“What’s really frustrating is the uncertainty. We had these ambitious plans for US expansion, and now we’re having to reassess everything because we just can’t predict what the tariff situation will look like six months from now,” says Jaehwan Lee, president of the Korea In-house Counsel Association (KICA) and general counsel of South Korean multinational fashion retailer Musinsa. “It’s making it really difficult to make confident investment decisions.”

Frustration and the need to reassess plans, arising from uncertainty brought by the Trump administration’s global reciprocal tariff war, have swept across industries and jurisdictions throughout Asia.

Asia Business Law Journal spoke to private practice and in-house lawyers across nine Asian jurisdictions to identify challenges in tackling what some describe as uncertainty, others volatility.

With nearly all Asian countries subject to reciprocal tariffs at different rates, companies in the region have limited options for reassessing their cross-border business and trade.

“Some companies are wary of what might be described as a ‘whack-a-mole’ effect – relocating operations to a new region, only to see that region become the next target of tariff measures or regulatory intervention,” says Minwoo Kim, a special counsel in international trade law and cross-border disputes at Covington & Burling in Washington.

On 2 April, US President Donald Trump announced an additional 10% blanket tariff on imports from all countries, while subjecting nations running large trade deficits with the US to higher tariffs on a jurisdiction-specific basis. Attempting to reduce the US trade deficit by boosting investment in the US and encouraging American-made goods, the Trump administration imposed tariffs at varying rates: 145% on China, 24% on Japan, 25% on South Korea, and 46% on Vietnam.

India was initially hit with a 26% tariff on 2 April, but was temporarily exempted on 9 April, while continuing to face the blanket 10% tariff. In August, the Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods, plus an additional 25% penalty for continuing to purchase Russian oil, raising duties to 50%.

The Trump administration also imposed sector-specific tariffs on imports of certain goods ranging from branded pharmaceuticals and automobiles to steel, furniture and semiconductors.

Governments including Japan, Vietnam and South Korea have since negotiated trade deals with the Trump administration, agreeing to broaden and increase US investment and purchase certain American products.

These deals led to lower tariff rates for those countries. China negotiated a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariff imposition in May, extended for another 90 days in August. The US reduced its tariff on Chinese goods to 30%, while China lowered its levy on US goods to 10%.

But the Trump administration announced on 11 October that it would impose an additional 100% tariff on imports from China, set to take effect on 1 November or earlier.