Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned Wednesday that global trade is being weaponized as Southeast Asia’s foreign ministers opened an annual meeting while facing the looming threat of U.S. trade tariffs.

Southeast Asia's biggest economies prepared on Tuesday to step up trade negotiations with Washington after it hit them with steep tariffs, despite a last-ditch flurry of offers to boost imports and slash levies on U.

Donald Trump’s latest act of trade brinkmanship risks creating a “tariff wall” around the manufacturing hubs of south-east Asia, leading to higher prices and tough choices for US consumers and industry,