East Asia Forum

1 week ago | eastasiaforum.org | Shiro Armstrong

The 28 per cent average tariff rate in the United States today, even with the 90 day pause, is significantly higher than the average rate of 19.8 per cent imposed during the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The highest Smoot-Hawley tariff rate was 59.1 per cent, well below the 145 per cent US President Donald Trump has slapped on all Chinese imports. Today’s tariffs return the United States to its 1821 to 1900 average 29.7 per cent tariff rate.

1 week ago | eastasiaforum.org | Adam Triggs

What a difference an election campaign can make. At the start of Australia’s six-week election campaign, opposition leader Peter Dutton led the opinion polls. By the 3 May election, the polls had reversed. Election night was a landslide — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not just win, his Labor Party increased its parliamentary majority substantially. Dutton’s Liberal Party did not just lose, he lost his own seat too.

2 weeks ago | eastasiaforum.org | James Borton

30 April 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon — a moment etched into history not only as the end of the Vietnam War but also as a stark symbol of abandoned allies and the collapse of US ambitions in Southeast Asia. In August 2021, eerily similar scenes unfolded in Kabul as the United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, again leaving behind a fragile government and uncertain future.

2 weeks ago | eastasiaforum.org | Hanh Nguyen

Southeast Asia has attracted attention in Canberra as a key element in Australia’s plans to secure its future prosperity and security through strengthened economic integration with the Asia Pacific. Australia’s recent official medium-term economic strategy for Southeast Asia cites strong growth prospects, economic complementarity and the need for trade diversification as key drivers of closer economic ties with the region.

1 month ago | eastasiaforum.org | James Laurenceson

‘Not … a friendly act’. ‘A very bad day for our relationship with the United States’. ‘Not how allies should treat one another’. Such were the descriptors that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his ministers used to announce that the United States had hit local steel and aluminium producers with 25 per cent tariffs on 12 March 2025. On the explanation that Washington had provided — that Australian steel and aluminium was a threat to US national security — the replies were just as blunt.