Posted by calvintaneng > 4 hours ago | Report Abuse

Trump's doctrine of Amplifying the Importance of Putting "America First" will result in consequences for Others

Centuries ago China closed its doors to the outside world because China was self-sufficient then. China saw no need to trade.

However, this round Usa is not self sufficient but it tries to protect its market which is not competitive

As such it has to impose 60% tax on China and for the rest of the world - a 10% to 20% universal tax

China will definitely move its exports through other Asean countries with less tax imposed by USA

This shows how times have changed

Obama wanted to "contain" China by joining TPP and use Asean as a base to counter China (Obama visited Asean twice) Trump goes head-on
He "confronts" not contain China

Uppermost in Trump's mind is job for Americans

By containing China jobs will still be away from US's shores - leaving many abandoned factories in USA and causing huge job losses

Now by putting Usa first Trump hope to get USA factories running plus requesting oversea factories to re-locate back to USA

All these are done to "create jobs" for Americans

So the turn of event will force China to relocate its factories more and more to Asean in general and Malaysia in particular - to mitigate the Tariff impact

China hope to re-route its exports to USA through other avenues

Hence, Malaysia should seize this opportunity to open wide its doors

Posted by qqq47660 > 1 hour ago | Report Abuse

America share of China exports is 10%. ....that's not enough leverage