The Economist Intelligence Unit projected that technology companies in Vietnam and Malaysia could strengthen while Thailand’s auto part producers could also benefit.
“The region’s traditional reliance on markets in the West obviated the need for a bigger liberalization push locally: intricate supply chains notwithstanding, economies tended to view each other more as competitors than collaborators,” Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC, told the WSJ. “Well, that’s changing. The more restrictions are imposed elsewhere, the more the region will need to open internally if it wants to preserve trade as an engine of growth.”
ETF investors who believe that other Southeast Asian economies could capitalize on the trade dispute have a number of country-specific ETF options to pick and choose their country plays. For example, investors can look to the iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF (NYSEArca: EWM), iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (NYSEArca: EWT), iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWY), VanEck Vectors Vietnam ETF (NYSEArca: VNM) and iShares MSCI Thailand Capped ETF (NYSEArca:THD), among others, for targeted exposures to the various Southeast Asian emerging economies.
For more information on the Asian markets, visit our Asia category.