Where Things Are Made and Where Things Are Bought

Gaurav, Denise and Stefan unpack U.S. President Trump’s late-October swing through Asia and what it means for who makes what—and who buys it. The centrepiece was the Trump-Xi meeting, which produced a brief ceasefire in the tariff fight and set the stage for another round of talks in early 2026. In Southeast Asia, Trump signed four market-access and procurement deals that overwhelmingly favoured the U.S., while his stops in Japan and Korea delivered more photo-ops than breakthroughs. The team asks whether any of this can really shift the structural imbalance between the world’s producer, China, and the world’s buyer, the U.S. They also wrestle with the practicalities of countries committing to buy planes Boeing can’t build, and whether those U.S.-bound investment promises deserve a seat at the G20 table.

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