By Nasir Jamal
President Trump鈥檚 new trade deals in Southeast Asia couple preferential market access for the US with punitive tariffs to choke off China鈥檚 ability to route exports through third countries. At the heart of these deals are additional tariffs of 40 per cent on transshipped goods and tighter rules of origin, a combination that, experts say, risks upending supply chains, undermining foreign investment, and testing the limits of global trade law.
Essentially, the US is sending a clear signal: trade deals will no longer be purely about mutual tariff cuts; rather, they are now instruments of geopolitical competition, designed to constrain rivals and shape the geography of global production.
Adil Nakhuda, a Karachi-based trade economist, explains that transshipment, or origin washing, is typically a method to avoid high tariff duties, especially on Chinese goods. He points out that several countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been identified as potential targets for additional tariffs