Trade

THE BROAD VIEW

Hainan’s Free Trade Port: A partner, not a rival, to Singapore

Divergence between ports creates opportunities for businesses to collaborate and complement each other’s strengths

The value of Australia’s shipments to China of iron ore, coal and other goods dropped 2% last year.

Australia’s falling China trade surplus rings economic alarm

Australians are buying more and more from overseas, with the Asian nation now supplying more than a quarter of all imports

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and US President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb 13, 2025. The latest deal owes as much to the two leaders' relationship as to any systematic trade negotiation.

The US-India trade deal: Strategic reset or fragile truce?

The lack of details on the agreement makes it difficult to assess its true economic impact

Hundreds of consignments have been stranded at ports and border checkpoints since the roll-out of new inspection rules.

Damage done: Vietnam’s food-safety push creates bitter aftertaste for businesses despite U-turn 

The new inspection rules, now suspended for 70 days, are jamming border crossings, disrupting supply chains and could push near-term prices up

A corn field in Indiana in the US. Yield growth for the three main cereals – corn, rice and wheat – has nearly flatlined over the past five years.

World’s food security is facing a triple threat

Humanity’s risk of starvation is going up with falling crop yields, strained water supplies and restrictive food trade

Customers at a shopping centre in Jakarta. Asean, with nearly 700 million consumers and rapidly expanding middle classes, represents one of the fastest-growing demand bases in the global economy.
NEW GLOBAL ORDER

Asean+3, not the US, is now the world’s largest market

This structural shift has measurable consequences for how shocks propagate

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney (left) with China President Xi Jinping in Beijing. On the first day of Carney’s trip to China on Jan 13, Canada agreed to deepen cooperation with the Asian country on both clean and conventional sources of energy.

Canada’s energy sector is its gateway to Asia

With economies like South Korea, Japan and Singapore importing almost all their oil and gas, Asia presents a huge opportunity for Ottawa

The modest rise in exports to China offers some relief to India, which faces high tariffs – and threats of even higher penalties – from the US, its main trading partner.

Electronics and shrimp: Analysts cautious despite India’s export growth to China

US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on many countries in 2025 triggered a scramble to find new markets

China’s supply chains are steadily becoming more deeply ingrained in South-east Asian countries, a structural tailwind for the region even if the tariff gap closes.

Chinese exports to EU and S-E Asia will keep growing, and not just as transhipments

Economists say that US tariffs and supply chain integrations are setting up Chinese exports in the long run