With little sign of a breakthrough in trade negotiations between the Trump administration and China, concerns are starting to spread across South-East Asia. The region is fearing that a prolonged stalemate could lead to an all-out trade war and that uncertainty is causing commodity prices to fall. And for Thai rubber farmers, as CGTN's Tony Cheng explains, the drop could be disastrous.

Scraping a living, but barely even doing that. A rubber tapper scores the bark creating a channel for white sap, pure latex to drip from the tree into a waiting bowl.

This slow and patient process is a pillar of the Thai economy, the number one producer of rubber in the world. But times are tough, prices are a third of what they were 5 years ago and could be about to drop even further. Those tappers that can find other work, have already gone.

RATTANA KAEWSUAN RUBBER TAPPER "I need to do it, I don't have any other job I can do. At my age, I don't have any other option."

The product of the day's work is offloaded to a local storage facility. Gallon drums of milky white nectar poured into an underground tank. But the price being paid by the middlemen is now even less than the cost of production. At a local processing plant sheets of solidified rubber wait to be cleaned. It may look like a lot, but they're finding it harder to get the rubber they need, because prices are so low.

PICHAI CHASAWAT THAI HUA FACTORY MANAGER, RAYONG "There won't be any rubber tappers, they will quit because the wage is not worth it as the prices keep decreasing dramatically. Even now it's very difficult to find rubber tappers to do the job."

The sheets are cleaned in huge baths, before being hung on racks to be dried. They're then stacked in huge ovens and baked at 60 degrees to leave only the purest rubber. 75% of the world's rubber is used in the automotive industry and one country is seeing it's the motor trade grow far more than anywhere else China.

TONY CHENG RAYONG, THAILAND "These rubber sheets are being sorted by quality, the highest grade which will be used in plane tires and even racing cars, but in this factory, which produces fifteen thousand tons a year, 60% is exported to China, and only 5% to the United States."

US tariffs have targeted Chinas automobile industry, the main buyer of Thai rubber. Thai producers are very concerned now Chinese manufacturers are being squeezed, they will suffer too. At the head office in Bangkok, senior executives are bracing themselves for choppy waters ahead.

KORAKOD KITTIPOL ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THAI HUA RUBBER "If you want to survive with your business, and the main market of your business is the USA, it means you need to move and change your strategy."

In the warehouse a stark illustration, the small pile at the front for a tire manufacturer in the US, the middle pile for domestic use, then the stacks at the back destined for China.

If US tariffs force Thailand to choose which way to go, the decision is already made. Tony Cheng, CGTN, Rayong Thailand.