Thailand, along with the rest of Southeast Asia, got some temporary relief when the U.S. President Donald Trump chose to delay his “Liberation Day” tariffs by 90 days. Now, the country’s U.S.-bound exports only have a 10% tariff, as opposed to the 36% threatened by Trump.
Asian markets have gone on a wild ride since Trump first unveiled his reciprocal tariffs on April 2, falling and rising according to the president’s statements. Thailand’s benchmark SET index fell by 9% between April 2 and April 9, only to rally after Trump announced his tariff pause. Still, the index has yet to recover from the “Liberation Day” hit.
“Reciprocal tariffs, we thought, were excessively high,” said Victor Cheng, the CEO of Delta Electronics Thailand, last week before Trump announced his tariff pause.
U.S. actions were causing “anxiety and great concern,” Cheng said, but noted that customers had yet to change or cancel any orders due to the tariffs and were instead adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Cheng added later, after Trump paused his tariffs, that customers are using the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs to “stock up”.
The CEO also explained why his U.S. customers, and not his company, “will have to bear the extra tariff on top of the original selling price.” He points out that most of Delta Electronics Thailand’s products are classed as “free on board”, which means responsibility passes from the seller—his company—to the buyer—the U.S. customer.
Who pays for tariffs is a major political point in the debate around Trump’s trade policy, with the president and his supporters claiming that the foreign government or company pays for the tariffs. Most trade professionals note that, in fact, it’s the importer that pays: it may then pass some, if not all, of the extra cost to end-consumers. (Large importers, like Walmart, might also be able to force foreign suppliers to take a haircut on price)
Still, Cheng was concerned that steep U.S. tariffs would still indirectly affect his company, by placing additional burdens on his customers and spurring inflationary pressures.
“Tariffs will definitely have some impact. A mild level will be OK…but high tariffs beyond 15% will be difficult to take by any single party and will cause disruption,” Cheng said in a follow-up conversation after Trump’s tariff pause.
Chen noted that, in the days since “Liberation Day,” Thailand’s government had reached out to industry associations and individual companies to understand how tariffs would affect their business. He predicted that Thailand will lower tariffs on U.S. goods and purchase more U.S. commodities, while coordinating with its fellow Southeast Asian governments to negotiate with the U.S. as a bloc.
Thailand will send a delegation to the U.S to start trade negotiations next week, the government said on Monday.
Focusing on EVs and data centers
Delta Electronics Thailand makes and distributes electronics, namely power components, that are used in items including electric vehicles and data centers. The company currently works with European and U.S.-based carmakers, but Cheng said Delta Electronics Thailand is starting to explore working with Chinese EV makers that have set up manufacturing capacity in Thailand.
EV adoption is growing in countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, in part due to government incentives and the debut of affordable Chinese-made cars. Southeast Asia is proving to be an attractive market for Chinese carmakers, due to its proximity to China and its more Beijing-friendly policy stance.
Electric cars made up 33.6% of all new car registrations in Singapore last year, up from 18% in 2023, according to government data. In neighboring Malaysia, EV sales jumped 19% to break 45,000; EV sales more than doubled in Indonesia to reach 43,000 units.
Cheng was optimistic that Delta Electronics Thailand was going to be able to tap into that expanding demand.
“Here in Southeast Asia, we’ve seen some success with EV chargers. We’re seeing the sales of that—whether it’s AC or DC—gradually growing here,” Cheng explained.
Regarding its data center business, Delta Electronics Thailand said U.S. companies are a significant customer base but declined to give specific names beyond AI chip leader Nvidia.
What is Delta Electronics Thailand?
Delta Electronics Thailand is a subsidiary of Delta Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. A booming EV industry helped drive up revenues, profits and share prices, which at one point helped make the subsidiary more valuable than its parent company.
Delta Thailand Electronics also spent much of 2024 as Thailand’s most valuable company, with a peak market value of around $64.1 billion last November.
Yet Delta’s share price has been on the slide since then, particularly after the company reported lower-than-exported earnings in mid-February. The company’s shares have lost more than 50% of their value since the November peak. The SET has fallen just over 27% over the same period.
Yugi Takeshima, an equity research analyst at Maybank Securities, warned in a March report that rising costs and the uncertainty over how a new global minimum tax on corporate earnings could serve as a headwind to earnings growth.
The global minimum tax is meant to discourage multinational companies from booking excessive profits in low-tax jurisdictions, by ensuring companies pay a minimum level of tax on their income in each jurisdiction that they operate in.
Delta Electronics Thailand was previously subject to a 5.5% tax in 2023. That will rise to 15% starting this year as Thailand imposed a “top-up” tax in January as the country seeks entry into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Cheng has previously commented that Delta Electronics Thailand’s share prices may have been overvalued, noting that the price-to-earnings ratio had “gone through the roof.”
He reaffirmed that sentiment in his conversation with Fortune and noted that share prices had gotten “a little bit too speculative.”
Cheng said he was focused on “business fundamentals” amid the tariff situation. Delta Electronics Thailand’s revenue is still at a healthy level, he said, and still growing year-on-year. Revenue for 2024 reached 164.7 billion baht ($4.9 billion), a 12.5% increase from the year before. The company’s 2023 revenue of 146.4 billion baht ($4.4 billion) was 23.5% higher than 2022 and was driven by its Mobility Group (EV) segment.
But even as EV growth moderates, Cheng remains positive on AI-related infrastructure. At the start of the year, the company projected “double-digit revenue growth” driven by investments.
“AI build out is a big impetus for revenue support this year and we also see some positive benefit for profits as well,” he said.
As the stock market remains volatile amid the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, consumer spending has not been significantly impacted, at least not yet. During quarterly earnings calls, credit card companies offered strong outlooks in regard to consumer spending, but many have taken measures to mitigate losses amid a potential economic downturn.
As President Donald Trump’s trade policies have contributed to stock market unrest, the fallout from his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs has yet to hit the quarterly financial reports of the country’s largest lenders where consumer spending patterns are often first to emerge
Earnings reports for credit card companies remained strong as consumers borrowed, spent, and opened credit cards more so than the year prior.
“The consumer continues to be resilient and discerning in their spend,” Citigroup’s chief financial officer Mark Mason said during the company’s quarterly earnings call last week. Mason also emphasized a revised consumer sentiment.
“We’ve seen a shift towards essentials and away from travel and entertainment,” Mason said.
JPMorgan Chase reported a 7% increase in credit- and debit-card spending year-over-year, but noted people were carrying elevated credit-card balances. Additionally, Bank of America outlined a 4% bump in credit- and debit-card spending from a year earlier coupled by a decline in late payments from loan holders over the previous quarter.
Despite positive growth, major credit card companies are preparing for an economic downturn and delinquencies are already rising to their highest level in five years.
“The focus right now is on the future, which is obviously unusually uncertain,” JPMorgan Chase finance chief Jeremy Barnum said during the bank’s most recent earnings call on April 11.
As JPMorgan holds the risk of a recession at 60%, the bank added to its rainy day funds in case of any future losses by increasing its allowance for credit losses (ACL) by $973 million, bringing its net reserve total to $27.6 billion.The ACL acts as a buffer to cover those losses if customers don’t pay their credit card bills.
Additionally, the company allocated $3.3 billion into its loan loss provisions— a 73% increase from the $1.9 billion issued to combat unpaid loans from a year prior. JPMorgan also maintains $1.5 trillion in cash and marketable securities.
JPMorgan did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
In addition to JPMorgan, Citi is maintaining security if an economic downturn happens. The bank increased its cost of credit by more than 15% from the year before to $2.7 billion.
Additionally, Citi boosted its total reserves by $1 billion in the first quarter, from $21.8 billion to $22.8 billion, seeking security if the U.S. economy goes south. The bank also maintains a strong liquidity and capital position with cash levels reaching $960 billion.
Citi did not immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
Richard Branson took issue with President Donald Trump’s tariff policy for being “erratic” and upending a good economy. The tariffs risked stoking inflation across the U.S., which would only make the Federal Reserve less likely to cut interest rates, which is what Trump wants, Branson said. Continuing the policy, he added, could risk rearranging the global economy as other countries exclude the U.S. from trade.
British billionaire Richard Branson renewed his criticism of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Having previously called the widespread tariff policy, which targets practically every country in the world, a “mistake,” Branson lately labeled it “erratic and unpredictable” at an event Wednesday at London’s Heathrow Airport for his airline, Virgin Atlantic.
In his remarks, Branson lamented that Trump’s tariff policies upended what had otherwise been a strong global economy.
“It’s just such a pity, because everything was going so bloody well up to about three months ago,” he said.
Branson’s own company, the Virgin Group, saw its own businesses directly affected by the tariffs, he said. Virgin Group operates an array of businesses, some of which are particularly vulnerable to Trump’s tariffs and the ensuing economic downturn. For example, Virgin’s airline, health clubs, and cruises were “full” prior to the tariffs; now, business is just “okay,” according to Branson.
“If he continues he’s in such danger of doing so much damage in the world,” he said.
Trump’s announcement of the policy on April 2 immediately sent the global market into a tailspin. Equities across the world plummeted. In the U.S., virtually no corner of the economy was spared: Stock and bond prices fell, and the dollar weakened, plunging to a three-year low. Branson warned there was still more to come in the U.S.
“Inflation hasn’t started kicking in in America,” he said. “It will once these tariffs start kicking in.”
Tariffs are widely seen as inflationary because they raise the prices for importers, who then often pass those costs on to consumers. That expected inflation hasn’t yet been recorded in official economic data, but the threat of it has influenced the decision-making of key leaders in the corporate world and at the Federal Reserve.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has refrained from further cutting interest rates because of the prospect inflation could come roaring back. That decision has infuriated Trump in recent weeks: He wants rates to come down, which he believes would spur economic activity that came to a halt after his tariff announcement. Branson believes Trump is unlikely to get what he wants.
“If Powell reduces interest rates, inflation will get even worse, so it’s unlikely that he is going to do what Trump wishes there,” Branson said.
Much of Trump’s inner circle backs the president’s hard-line stance on global trade. But those views are not widely shared among most Americans, Branson said.
“I honestly think this is a fairly small elite [group] of people around Trump,” Branson said. “I don’t think he is carrying the vast majority of Americans in what he is doing.”
In fact, most Americans were feeling the brunt of Trump’s trade policy, he added.
“Most American people are decent individuals,” Branson said. “I’m just sad, incredibly sad. And many, many, many Americans I know are just very sad.”
Trump has since pulled back on his initial policy that saw tariffs north of 10% levied on almost all of the U.S.’s trading partners. Earlier this month, Trump announced a 90-day pause on his tariff plans in order to begin negotiating trade deals with the other countries. Doing so was a smart move, according to Branson, so that the U.S. didn’t risk isolating itself from the rest of the world.
“You can see a world where Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China, all trade together and build a powerhouse in years to come,” he said. “There is a big market out there, which you could find America gets excluded from, a lot of imports and exports.”
As people live longer, many older adults are forgoing retirement at the traditional age of 65. While many want to continue working to stay engaged and connected, others can not afford any alternative.
Today, over 11 million older adults are in the workforce. By 2030, when all baby boomers are 65 and older, nearly 10% of the workforce will comprise older adults.
With significant demographic changes already at play in the five-generation workforce, finding a place to work into older age is more relevant than ever.
Seniorly, a digital senior living directory platform, analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and the Federation of Tax Administrators to rank the best and worst states (plus the District of Columbia), for older workers.
Factoring in a state’s median income, income tax, remote-work policies, labor-force participation, business growth rate, and age-related workplace discrimination, states in the Northeast and West were rated highest as the best places for older adults to work, while Southern states were at the bottom.
Washington topped the list “due to its strong business environment, with no personal income tax and the highest rate of new business growth last year (88.6%),” according to the report. “It also has a high median income for senior households ($63,963) and a strong work-from-home culture (22.4% of older adults are remote).”
It was followed by New Hampshire and Alaska.
In Mississippi, the worst state for older workers, labor participation among older workers was low, and there were 188 complaints of age-based discrimination per 100,000 workers.
Here are the top 10 best states for older workers:
1. Washington
2. New Hampshire
3. Alaska
4. Maryland
5. Colorado
6. Connecticut
7. Massachusetts
8. South Dakota
9. Utah
10. Vermont
Here are the top 10 worst states for older workers:
Politics8 years ago