3 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
A Soap Opera of Trade Deals
'Asian Allies Seek Wiggle Room on Tariffs' (U.S. News, July 9) shows how tangled trade policy has become. For American companies working in Asia, the soap opera of President Trump's trade deals isn't merely a diplomatic sideshow; it's changing the way companies operate on the ground.
U.S. multinationals face a growing backlash in Asia, sometimes explicitly in reciprocal tariff arrangements, but also more subtly implied through future regulatory or market-access decisions. At the same time, for every overture U.S. executives make to their Asian stakeholders, they're required to reassert their commitment to the White House and American jobs. Every decision—from where to invest to how to price products—risks upsetting someone.
