Asian economies weigh impact of fresh Trump tariff measures

US trading partners in Asia were weighing fresh uncertainties this weekend after President Donald Trump announced a new tariff on imports, hours after the Supreme Court struck down many of the sweeping levies he used to launch a global trade war.

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The court's ruling invalidated a number of tariffs that the Trump administration had imposed on Asian export powerhouses from China and South Korea to Japan and Taiwan, the world’s largest chipmaker and a key player in tech supply chains.

Within hours, Trump said he would impose a new 10% duty on US imports from all countries starting on Tuesday, which he raised to 158 on Saturday. The levies, under a different law, are set for 150 days, prompting analysts to warn that more measures could follow, threatening more confusion for businesses and investors.

Before the ruling, Trump's tariff push had strained Washington’s diplomatic relations across Asia, particularly for export-reliant economies integrated into U.S.-bound supply chains.

In Japan, a government spokesman said on Saturday that Tokyo “will carefully examine the content of this ruling and the Trump administration's response to it, and respond appropriately.” On Sunday, Itsunori Onodera, an executive of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party and a former defence minister, called Trump's new tariffs “outrageous”.

“As an ally, I'm worried this will only accelerate countries distancing themselves from the US,” Onodera, the LDP tax policy chief, who is not in government, told a talk programme on Fuji Television.