Within a year of taking office, U.S. president Donald Trump turned global trade on its head. His sweeping tariffs took effect on Aug. 1, and have since upended countless trade relationships countries built through years of diplomacy. Yet despite the U.S.’ tariffs, global trade has been more resilient than expected, say Macquarie’s analysts in their 2026 global economic and market outlook (which was released in December). They’ve even benefitted an unlikely group: Southeast Asian economies.
This is because many Chinese exporters turned to transshipping to reduce tariff payments—a process that led them to route goods through ASEAN countries before shipping them to the U.S.
