Jakarta. ASEAN economies are not safe from US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, with the rates on Cambodia and Vietnam, and even the quake-hit Myanmar being among the highest in the Southeast Asian bloc.

The Trump administration imposes 32 percent "reciprocal" tariffs on Indonesia.

Speaking from the Rose Garden, Trump on Wednesday unveiled that he would impose a 10 percent tariff on all countries. However, the rates can be higher depending on how unfair the country has been on American imports, according to Trump.

The so-called reciprocal tariffs have the US imposing new tariffs to pay its trading partners back for levying higher rates on American goods. The tariffs differ from one country to another, with Trump saying that the US is only charging them half of what they have been slapping on American imports. Trump held up a chart that compares the rates that the US has been charged with and will impose -- all to show that Washington is trying to be “kind” by giving discounted reciprocal tariffs.

In ASEAN, Cambodia witnesses the steepest Trump’s reciprocal tariffs of a staggering 49 percent. Followed by Laos (48 percent) and Vietnam (46 percent). Myanmar, which was recently struck by a deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake, is about to get hit by a 44 percent reciprocal tariff. According to the White House’s calculations, Myanmar has been charging American imports 88 percent tariffs, which encompass other trade barriers and currency manipulation. Indonesia comes in sixth place compared to other ASEAN members by getting 32 percent reciprocal tariffs, just behind Thailand (36 percent).

“Vietnam [has] great negotiators and great people. They like me, I like them. The problem is they charge us 90 percent, so we are going to charge them 46 percent tariffs,” Trump said on Wednesday local time.

“[We have] Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia. Oh, look at Cambodia with 97 percent. We are going to bring [the tariffs] down to 49 percent. They made a fortune with the US,” Trump remarked -- a statement that made someone in the crowd break into a loud laughter.

US-bound goods from Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam will be subject to 24 percent reciprocal tariffs. The rates for the Philippines stand at 17 percent. Singapore gets the lowest reciprocal tariffs among ASEAN nations, only getting charged the minimum baseline of 10 percent.

The executive order that Trump signed that day specifically mentioned Indonesia and its tariffs on ethanol. The document wrote that Indonesia imposed a 30-percent tariff on ethanol than the US (2.5 percent). The US, too, slaps a 2.7 percent most-favored-nation tariff for rice in the husk, much lower compared to ASEAN member Malaysia’s 40 percent.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani had already given a warning that tariffs on Indonesia were looming, considering the huge trade imbalance. Last month, Sri Mulyani revealed some ASEAN economies made it to the top 20 of the largest contributors to the US trade deficit in 2024. Indonesia was in 15th place as Jakarta gave the US a $19.3 billion deficit, behind Malaysia ($26.1 billion). Vietnam made up the third largest share of the US trade imbalance that year, amounting to $129.4 billion. Thailand ranked 11th as the US ran a $48.3 billion deficit with Bangkok. Cambodia, too, made it to the list as the 18th biggest contributor ($13 billion).

The Indonesian government was planning to host a press conference in response to Trump’s tariffs on Thursday morning with Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto and Foreign Minister Sugiono expected to be in attendance. The government, however, decided to postpone the conference, saying that the matter called for “comprehensive discussions among the different ministries”.

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