These laws and treaties laid the foundation for the creation of postwar multilateral trade organizations, rules and system that spurred development and helped build a relatively peaceful global environment. Access to the US market, technologies, knowledge and capital has facilitated the miraculous growth of most Asian economies including Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the ASEAN tiger, Singapore. It did the same for China.

　　But those days are over. With the US falling back on the pre-war global trade order — marked by zero-sum games, unilateralism and disrespect for rules — the questions that arise are: What's next? What will the US-led new global trade order look like? And what kind of role will the US play in it?

　　What we know for certain is that the benefits of open trade are too big to be abandoned, especially for small open economies like ASEAN countries that rely on trade to create jobs, earn foreign exchange, and facilitate technological transfer. It is no less important for China to tap global markets to maintain its economic scale and development scope.

　　This means free trade won't be passé for the rest of the world, certainly not for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership member states. Even though cross-border trade and foreign direct investment flows are likely to decline after the tariff shock, a surge in trade under the RCEP framework is likely to offset the US tariffs' impact, because countries will try to diversify their trade to make their supply chains more resilient.

　　With the US building tariff walls, the RCEP should tear down tariff and non-tariff barriers for member states as an insurance against the calamitous impact of US tariffs and distance themselves from the US' policies.