Analysts: U.S. trade policies enabling protectionism in the Indo-Pacific

摘要

The tariff-centric trade policies of the Trump administration are giving countries in the Indo-Pacific region license to enact their own protectionist policies and trade practices, analysts said on Wednesday. "The more that the United States shows that it's okay to flout the rules, the more Asia thinks it's okay to flout the rules" Deborah Elms, executive director of Singapore-based Asian Trade Centre, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. "So we sitting in Asia are spending most of our time - when we're not dealing with this trade war thing - dealing with nonstop problems and challenges in Asia that we would not have had to deal with before."