KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 — Malaysia, as the Asean chair this year, has requested, through its Foreign Ministry, a special United States (US)-Asean summit to discuss the tariff issue.
Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz also confirmed that all Asean leaders have agreed to go to the US to meet up with President Donald Trump during the summit.
“And I was made to understand from the Asean secretariat, now we are waiting for the US to revert with the time,” he said during his interview with CNBC this morning.
The minister reiterated that Asean does not believe in any retaliatory tariff actions, and the South-east Asia trading bloc wants to continue to engage Washington.
For Malaysia, Tengku Zafrul said the country was taking both bilateral and multilateral approaches.
“We also agree that the rule-based multilateral trading system is the way to go for Malaysia. We have our officers in Washington, our ministry, as well as our embassy, engaging (with the US),” he said.
“Of course, our foreign minister has also been engaging with the US secretary of state,” he said, adding that Malaysia’s applied effective tariff rate to the US is around 5.6 per cent.
Tengku Zafrul added that Putrajaya welcomed the reprieve from the pause in reciprocal tariffs by the US as this gives an opportunity to engage and negotiate. — Bernama
