When United States President Donald Trump returned to office 12 months ago, he promised to slash the country’s trade deficit, which had swelled to about $918.4bn, or 3.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), for goods and services in 2024.Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he launched “reciprocal tariffs” on US trade partners to “rectify trade practices”, which the White House blamed for hollowing out US manufacturing, starting on April 2.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listBut preliminary trade data indicate that while the global US trade deficit fell in 2025 as Trump intended, the tariffs have not had their intended effect in Southeast and East Asia. Rather than reduce US dependence on the two regions, both major manufacturing hubs, the tariffs have simply rearranged supply chains.“If you squeeze a balloon in one direction and people still want the product, then they will get the product, whatever it is, from a different location,” said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore.“Trade moves to where trade opportunities can be found,” she told Al Jazeera. “We have shuffled the way that we do trade, but we haven’t ended trade.”Drop in Chinese exports to USOne of Trump’s top targets was China, the world’s factory and a major source of exports to the US.Months of tit-for-tariffs imposed by Washington and Beijing ended wit …
