Manila. ASEAN is seeking to quickly resolve the double-digit tariff issues with the United States to avoid unpredictability for the region’s businesses, according to the Southeast Asian bloc’s secretary-general Kao Kim Hourn.

US President Donald Trump has been targeting Washington’s trading partners — including ASEAN members — with steep tariff hikes since April 2025. Just a few days ago, Trump slapped new levies of either 10% or 12.5% on Southeast Asian economies, with the Philippines and Singapore among the worst hit.

Speaking at the 10th ASEAN Media Forum in Manila, Kao admitted that the tariffs remained an “ongoing issue”.

“Businesspeople wish for a predictable and certain environment. … They want to see that environment will continue to be governed by some sort of legal framework. That’s why member states have to work with the US to address this,” Kao told reporters on Wednesday.

“The sooner we can sort these out, the better it is for the economy.”

The Trump administration argues that the latest tariff measure is a way to punish countries for inadequately enforcing bans on goods made by forced labor. A lower duty of 10% applies to countries that the US deems have made commitments to curb such goods. Indonesia and Malaysia are on this list, putting them at a slightly better position region-wide.

Analysts have said that the forced labor concern is only an excuse for Trump to rebuild the tariff regime that the Supreme Court had struck down.

Kao suggested that ASEAN’s economic ministers would draft a more detailed response to the forced-labor tariffs when they sit together this September.  But as for now, the group’s commitment to a “rules-based multilateral trading system” hasn’t changed an iota, as stated in ASEAN’s April 2025 joint statement on the tariffs, according to Kao.

Despite being hit with a 12.5% levy, the Philippines remains upbeat that ASEAN can sort things out with the US.

“All these [tariff] issues can be negotiated. … We [ASEAN] have always been successful in our negotiations,” Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro told the same conference later that day.

US Ambassador to ASEAN Kevin Kim recently defended the tariff policies, saying that Washington was pursuing “fair and reciprocal trade”. Even so, trade is only a single component of the US-ASEAN ties, said Kim.

The US reported that its goods trade with ASEAN totaled $580.1 billion in 2025. Washington’s goods trade deficit with ASEAN skyrocketed 43.2% year-on-year to $327.3 billion that year.

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