Re: "Trump rules tariff hike on 'all' imports", (BP, May 12). Whatever happened to US President Trump's famous skills in rendering The Art of the Deal? The apparent collapse of trade negotiations between China and the US are just the latest in a long string of Mr Trump's failures to deliver meaningful international agreements.
In the past two years, Mr Trump's efforts to negotiate with North Korea's Kim Jong-un have fallen completely flat. Mr Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate agreement and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action limiting Iran's nuclear development -- with no viable alternatives on offer.
The American president has begun the process of withdrawing the US from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia -- one of the most successful agreements in history with respect to reducing superpower nuclear weapon arsenals. Mr Trump's feelers for negotiating a new nuclear arms control agreement that would include Russia and China have gone absolutely nowhere.
These negotiating failures are mirrored by Mr Trump's inability to strike any meaningful deals with the US Congress on immigration reform, infrastructure revival, health care or the dozens of other domestic issues that cry out for attention.
During his election campaign, Donald Trump touted his brilliant negotiating skills and claimed Americans would "get tired of winning" under his deal-making leadership. Sadly, many of us are still waiting for the first win -- much less getting tired of winning.
Samanea Saman
Integrate Asean
Re: "20 years of mixing Asean old and new", (Opinion, May 14).
The visionary statement made by the late former Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan has reminded me that for Asean to really emerge as to what it could and should be, sharing "will lead to the belief and action of unity" and will help to curb the inequities in growth in the individual member state economies. In the face of stark economic diversity, new and old members need to become integrated through equitable development.
While Myanmar is Asean's new engine, if and when it overcomes its current strife, we will have to accept that its economy will compete with Asean itself. A last lingering question is: When will Timor Leste finally be admitted as Asean's 11th member state?
Glen Chatelier
Doctor fees scandal
Now that the cat is out of the bag, literally speaking, and the rip-off prices for prescription medication charges at private hospitals have been rumbled, is it time to start looking at doctor's fees?
I recently had to see a dermatologist at one of the five-star hospitals in Bangkok.
It seemed that I was being charged for the number of times I went in and out of the doctor's room. For a consultation, I was charged a doctor's fee of 2,000 baht, which I felt was fair, but then it got a bit ridiculous.
After being asked to wait outside I was then presented with the cost of a procedure which included another 2,000-baht doctor's fee, for the same doctor I had just seen.
But it doesn't end there. The doctor then recommended another procedure that required me to move to a different room to give a biopsy sample. And yes, that was another doctor's fee of 2,000 baht, for the same doctor. Luckily, I was with my wife who could see what was going on and put a stop to the event.
Brian Corrigan
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