After Earthquakes, Came Trump Tariffs: Myanmar's 2nd Jolt Inside A Week

A week after a deadly earthquake struck Myanmar, "Liberation Day" tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump have cast a shadow on the country's economic future as it mitigates vast infrastructural damage.

The country, where the toll after a 7.7-magnitude quake climbed past 3,000, has been slapped with 44 per cent tariffs. The nation is facing among those the highest tariffs in the world. Already reeling from political chaos since 2021 when Min Aung Hlaing's military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar has appealed to the international community for aid.

In fact, the head of Myanmar's junta is will travel to Bangkok for the BIMSTEC summit, where he will raise the response to Friday's 7.7-magnitude quake that has flattened buildings across the country.

Among other countries facing steep tariffs is Cambodia, which faces a rate of 49 per cent while 17.8 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Laos, with a poverty rate of 18.3 per cent, faces 48 per cent tariffs.

Lesotho, a country which Trump had said "nobody has ever heard of" and has the second-highest level of HIV cases in the world, faces the highest tariff of 50 per cent.

An emerging economy Vietnam, which had recently taken a series of measures to reduce its trade surplus with Washington, including cutting tariffs on a wide range of goods destined for the US, faces 46 per cent tariffs.

Sri Lanka, which began emerging from its worst economic crisis it had been witnessing since 2019, has been tariffed 44 per cent.

The list of tariffs also includes several countries with minimal human population. Among them is Norfolk Island (29 per cent), home to many descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers with a total population of a little over 2,000 people. Trump also imposed a 10-percent tariff on imports from Australia's Heard and McDonald Islands territory in the sub-Antarctic, which are uninhabited by humans but provide a home to large numbers of penguins.