Commentary

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
announced on December 2 updates to export controls that limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment in order to slow China’s military modernization and use of advanced technologies that enable human rights abuses. These rules are the Biden administration’s third major update in three years and are expected to serve as the final update before a change of administration.

In response to the U.S. election outcome, TAG sampled media commentaries and official statements from across the Indo-Pacific region, leveraged our in-house AI engine’s capabilities to process those findings, then peppered our results with insights from the region. Overall, we found that the major economies of the region feel challenged by the impending Trump presidency,

Southeast Asia will continue to benefit from increasing supply chain diversification and focus on resiliency. Diversification predates Trump’s first term, initially driven by higher production costs in China.

While the general negative trajectory of U.S.-China relations will not change after the election, competition is likely to intensify, and relations may become more unpredictable under a second Trump administration. Both Trump andHarris view China as the United States’ pacing threat and seek to curtail China’s technological advancement, military modernization, and non-market practices. However, their

Chinese firms view Mexico as a compelling investment destination in North America. Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows from China into Mexico represent Mexico’s fastest-growing source of inbound industrial capital. In 2022, China’s annual FDI into Mexico reached a record high and was almost four times the total in 2015. These most recent numbers also do not account for a wave of large investment deals signed in the past two to three years, some in the billions of dollars, that will be reflected in official data over the coming years.

On October 27, the ruling LDP and Komeito lost their majority in the Lower House, losing a combined 64 seats to opposition parties led by the CDPJ, which gained 50 seats.

On October 21, Vietnam’s National Assembly unanimously elected General Luong Cuong as the country’s new president. General Secretary To Lam, who had been serving concurrently as president, will now focus on his primary role as head of the Communist Party. Luong Cuong’s promotion signifies Vietnam’s return to the tradition of collective leadership, with power shared among the four highest ranking positions (the “four pillars”) – general secretary, president, prime minister, and chairman of the national assembly. With a decades-long career in the military, Luong Cuong adds a military presence to Vietnam’s leadership group, which was dominated by those with a police background.

With two weeks to the U.S. election, TAG takes a look at where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on key trade, foreign policy, and industry issues that are most likely to impact the Indo-Pacific region.

The Asia Group (TAG) has released an update to its 2023 white paper “Observations on Drug Pricing and Innovation in Japan” which analyzes the outstanding policy challenge of the “zero co-factor” rule under the cost-based price calculation method, which continues to undermine the Japanese government’s efforts to restore the country’s drug discovery capabilities and create a

 複雑な薬事行政環境にもかかわらず、多くの製薬会社にとり日本は依然として重要な市場である。日本市場は、2023年には約880億ドルで米国と欧州連合に次ぐ世界第3位であり、2029年には約919.4億ドルになると見込まれる。