More than 40 per cent of Apac businesses plan to shift focus away from US: survey

[SINGAPORE] More than 40 per cent of businesses in the Asia-Pacific region plan to pivot away from the US with 22 per cent to shift their focus on markets within Asia and 21 per cent on Europe over the next 12 months.

This is despite around a quarter of them currently identifying the US as their primary market.

Ongoing volatility around legislation is also an issue: 27 per cent said that the difficulty of keeping up with rule changes was a key barrier to trade, while 25 per cent added that clear pre-shipment duties and taxes were a top priority for them.

The data comes from a survey conducted by express carrier Federal Express (FedEx) involving more than 3,800 companies, ranging from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to multinational corporations.

These companies were from nine Asia-Pacific markets – Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – and participated in FedEx’s webinars held in September that were in response to US rule changes on de minimis exemptions.

In August, the US ended the de minimis rule, where packages valued under US$800 avoided customs duty and tax, with minimal paperwork. Now, all shipments regardless of their value or origins, will be assessed import duties, taxes, and fees.

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As de minimis rule ended, postal services of more than 30 countries, including Japan and South Korea, announced temporary suspension of shipments to the US, citing regulatory uncertainty.

In preparation for increased trade within Asia, FedEx has added new routes: a weekly flight between South Korea to Vietnam and China started earlier in October, and a daily direct flight between Taiwan and South Korea was launched in July.