Asia’s Escalating Quickly!
Happy days for investors branching out and expanding their horizons to Asian markets, with currencies and stocks set to go higher as a new trading bloc forms. However, there are also losers in the equation!
Yesterday, the smokey, congested streets of Bangkok played host to the ASEAN-India summit. With economies in the region growing at breakneck speed, the bi-annual meeting is a convenient opportunity to break up fights and strengthen ties. With investors hobbled by trade wars, world leaders have cleared their diaries and made time to attend this landmark summit. However, guess who had a UFC match to attend?
President Trump sent one of his tin soldiers instead. National security advisor Robert O’Brien saved his country some face, but clinging to Asian coat-tails is a good strategy in the world, and without the man himself in attendance, analysts fear the US could lose out on strategic opportunities. There was also no one to stymie the Thai president’s plans to create a massive new Asian trading bloc.
Seven years in the making, a “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” will make it easier for Asian countries to do business with one another. For example, swapping South Korean semiconductors for Chinese air conditioners could be done without tariffs, raising the earnings of companies in both countries, and increasing their worth to investors. 10 countries in the deal encapsulate a third of the world’s population, so this is no small trading bloc.
Countries could put pen to paper as early as February unless the rest of the world can do something about it. It could also complicate Sino-US trade talks, but with Asia growing like wildfire, is the rise worth fighting?
