Trump’s renewed tariffs will likely expedite Asean integration

[WASHINGTON] The pace of politics in much of the West often slows during the summer, but this June promises to be a busy one, with the White House accelerating its efforts to rebuild US President Donald Trump’s tariff wall.

At the start of 2026, researchers at the Yale University Budget Lab calculated that the overall average effective US tariff rate for imports had jumped to its highest level since at least the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The Supreme Court in February struck down most of Trump’s so-called reciprocal and fentanyl tariffs, ruling that a US president cannot use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement them.