Trump opens Asia trip with trade deals

HONG KONG — President Donald Trump began his weeklong trip to Asia on Sunday with agreements that secured commitments from Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia that could be used to support his broader goal to contain China.

The countries agreed to cooperate with Washington on export controls, sanctions, and access to critical minerals. These gestures appear to strengthen Trump’s position before an expected meeting Thursday with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader.

The details were buried in a flurry of documents the White House published as Trump met world leaders in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

While the statements did not mention China, they signaled varying degrees of support for Trump’s aim to reduce China’s stranglehold on materials essential to a wide array of products, including batteries, smartphones, and magnets for fighter jets.

Additionally, the statements included language stating that the countries would coordinate with Washington on combating unfair trade practices. This could mean that if the United States uses sanctions to penalize a Chinese entity, “These countries are going to have to respect that,” said Steve Okun, head of APAC Advisors, a geopolitical consulting firm.

“It advances the principle that the U.S. says, ‘We need to de-risk from China,’” Okun said.

The trade announcements also reaffirmed the 19% tariff rate for all three countries that Trump has already imposed. They included demands for market access and preferential treatment for American companies.

A joint statement with Vietnam, also published Sunday, largely reiterated an earlier agreement the countries had reached, imposing a 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods imported by the United States and potentially making it easier for American companies to export autos there.

The most detailed of the agreements put out Sunday was with Malaysia. Trump called it a “major trade deal,” and it includes a pledge by the Southeast Asian country to invest $70 billion in the United States over the next 10 years.

According to the White House, Thailand agreed to purchase 80 American planes worth $18.8 billion, and Cambodia stated that it would collaborate with Boeing, the American aerospace giant, to support its aviation sector.

The commitments on minerals announced Sunday are nonbinding and will require more negotiations, but they were “a step in the right direction,” said Alexander Feldman, a partner at the Asia Group, putting Trump “in a better negotiating position.”

Missing from Sunday’s announcements were details about so-called rules of origin that many officials and business leaders throughout Southeast Asia have been waiting for. The Trump administration wants to punish countries that allow Chinese exporters to evade tariffs by passing them through third countries. To do so, Washington must define the nationality of products that are shipped to the United States. One idea would be to require countries to put a ceiling on the amount of foreign materials in a good they ship to the United States.

Resolution on rules of origin is central to Trump’s aim to reduce China’s dominant role as the starting point for many of the world’s manufactured goods.

The next stop for Trump this week is Japan, where he is expected Tuesday to meet with Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s new prime minister. Among the issues they could discuss is how Japan can invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States and increase military spending.

Then it’s on to South Korea for what is expected to be the highlight of the trip: Trump’s meeting with Xi. The United States and China are locked in a stare-down over tariffs and access to the critical products each is able to lord over the other — American semiconductors and Chinese rare earth materials.

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators, meeting in Kuala Lumpur over the past few days, had made progress. “We have a very successful framework for the leaders to discuss,” he told reporters.

Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, added: “We think we’re getting to a point where we have something done for the leaders for their consideration.”

China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, later Sunday affirmed that the two sides had reached a “preliminary consensus” on a variety of issues. “Next we are each going to go through our domestic, internal approval processes,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.