Jakarta. The US recently defended its decision to slap tariffs on ASEAN as Washington pursued more deals to rebalance trade that had largely been in Southeast Asian nations’ favor. 

Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer was in Manila over the weekend to meet ASEAN’s economic ministers. In the opening session, Switzer called ASEAN a “consequential partner” to Washington before going into his tariff speech. The comment came against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s double-digit tariff hikes against ASEAN nations and other parts of the world. 

Switzer said Washington sought to work together to “bring reciprocity and balance” to trade ties.

“Over the last year and a half, under President Trump's leadership, we have started to make strides to address unfair trade practices, remove non-tariff barriers …,” Switzer told the conference. 

“... improve our access to respective markets, strengthen economic and national security cooperation. For some, this has already resulted in deals being signed.”

Washington also remains in “close contact” to sign more deals “soon”, said Switzer, alluding to negotiations with Thailand.

The meeting followed the typical ASEAN format, with the rest of the talks not live-broadcast. Filipina Trade Secretary and the group's chair Cristina A Roque avoided mentioning the tariffs in the opening session, but had told Switzer that the group wants to "open channels of communication".

The ASEAN-US joint statement did not explicitly point out the tariff increases. However, both sides were on the same page on the need to keep “trade corridors open”, especially amid the global economic troubles, according to the two-page document. They also agreed to “constructively address trade concerns”.

The US government reported a $327.4 billion goods trade deficit with ASEAN in 2025. Goods commerce amounted to $579.8 billion, while Washington saw a $29.8 billion services trade surplus with the grouping. The joint statement wrote that the two-way merchandise trade reached $550.5 billion that same year. 

The Trump administration had set the capricious tariffs on ASEAN nations at different rates. This treatment also applies in the latest campaign, where Washington named forced labor-linked imports as its rationale to set new duties of either 10% or 12.5%. Indonesia and Malaysia — with whom the US has a tariff deal  —are subject to a 10% tax. US-bound Singaporean, Vietnamese, and Thai goods bear the 12.5% rate. 

The US just last week began accepting feedback from its businesses and organizations to take stock of the trade barriers in many ASEAN markets, including Indonesia and Malaysia.

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