The escalating announcement of tariffs on exports and imports to China and the US, respectively, have fueled trends that have been already present. As of 2017,  the exports from the EU to Asia were twice that of the US’s exports to the same Asian nations. From that trend, the IMF’s Direction of Trade data  confirms that the EU is continuing to becoming more economically important to Asia than the US has been. Additionally, the individual private consumer expenditures within Asia have increased to the levels of the United States.

Excluding Japan, Asia has seen a three-fold increase in consumer expenditures over the past decade over the growth experienced in the US. By this measure, Asia will become the largest import market within the next five years. What the Trump administration’s tariffs on imports from both the EU and many Asian  nations have done is to provide an opportunity for the EU and Asia to increase trade even moreso. This in effect could encourage the reduction in tariffs between the two economic areas, furthering the global goals of free trade between as many participants as possible. These trends are the result  of the Trump administration’s protectionist policies which has resulted in  withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The agreement has since had the signatures of eleven nations, and encouraged trade deals between Asian nations that have previously had difficulties doing so.