As Donald Trump returns to the White House, the trade war that he began has not only continued under President Biden but accelerated. The complexity of US export, import, investment, and sanctions regimes, each with distinct but overlapping rules, is not only hard for American companies to follow but increasingly relies upon cooperation and enforcement by other countries. Transshipment restrictions have become an onerous element of both US and Chinese measures. Particularly affected are East Asian countries that are usually regarded as US partners but rely on trade with both superpowers: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Christina Davis, a professor of Japanese politics at Harvard University and director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and Pasha Hsieh, professor of law at Singapore Management University, will discuss the economic and political impact that US-Chinese rivalry is having on these countries, how much agency they have to comply or abstain from the superpower struggle, the impact on regional trade patterns, and whether these smaller countries may help lead the way back to a more unified rules-based trade order. Learn more.