Thailand faces heavier challenges under Trump tariffs

Several political missteps put Bangkok in troubled waters

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2025-04-08Thailand will increase U.S. imports, finance minister says

Shopkeepers prepare frozen seafood at a wholesale market in Pathumthani province, on April 8, following a tariff rate of 36% imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, making Thailand one of six countries in Southeast Asia region hit by much higher-than-expected U.S. tariffs. © Reuters

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is professor at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science and a senior fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok.

Thailand is in deeper waters compared with its peers in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs announced on April 2. Several policy missteps from an ill-advised deportation of Uyghurs to China and the reception of Myanmar's junta chief to the controversial arrest of an American academic have undermined Thailand-U.S. relations at a time when Bangkok needs to navigate and negotiate a tariff deal in Washington.

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