Ken Heydon

Dec 1, 2024 | johnmenadue.com | Ken Heydon

US President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies — marked by high tariffs — have been a major economic setback for the United States. The costs of these policies have harmed domestic buyers and caused job losses in sectors related to the targeted industries. Rather than resolving the trade imbalance issue as Trump intended, his administration’s fiscal expansion and subsequent reactions from affected countries have led to a major surge in the US trade deficit.

Sep 23, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Ken Heydon

In early 2024, China’s State Council announced its wish to accelerate China’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a preferential trade agreement among eleven Pacific Rim economies plus the United Kingdom. This move is welcome as a complement to WTO activity but its success is not assured.

Feb 26, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Ken Heydon |Xirui Li |Viet Dung Trinh

Since invading Ukraine, Russia has used a combination of incentives and threats to align Central Asian countries with its interests. Russia has also converged with China as an adamant opponent to Western development cooperation programs that they perceive as masked initiatives aimed at infiltrating Central Asia and steering the region to support Ukraine.

Feb 25, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Ken Heydon |Victor Crochet |Weihuan Zhou |Troy Stangarone

If re-elected, Donald Trump has promised a 10 per cent tariff on all goods coming into the United States — a tax on imports — and a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods. That’s not quite the shock to the system of the US Smoot-Hawley tariffs of close to 20 per cent that exacerbated and prolonged the Great Depression in the 1930s, but it’s very close. What made things worse in the 1930s was the retaliation from much of the rest of the world, ratcheting up tariffs and restrictions on global trade.

Feb 25, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Ken Heydon |Victor Crochet |Weihuan Zhou |Troy Stangarone

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference takes place in Abu Dhabi on 26–29 February. It is expected to include a deal providing transparency and predictability in electronic commerce, endorse an agreement on investment facilitation for development and admit two least developed countries, Timor Leste and the Comoros, as WTO members. Though welcome, these are modest expectations.