Exporters urged to take advantage of trade war

Malaysia's exports in October surged 17.7% on-year to RM96.38bil, which is a historic high for the country, powered by manufactured goods.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian exporters, especially palm oil producers, have been urged to take advantage of the current US-China trade war which may see the latter facing difficulty in replacing its soybean supplies.

In making the call, Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok Suh Sim said China’s move to place an additional 25% retaliatory tariff on US soybean oil gave Malaysian exporters an opportunity to offer their products to the Chinese market.

“Malaysia must work hard to meet the possible increase in demand for agri-commodity products following the trade war between China and the United States, since palm oil is a big revenue earner for Malaysia.

“Malaysia hopes that China will be importing more Malaysian palm oil and palm-based products and also encourage more China corporations to invest in other primary industries in Malaysia,” she said at the launch of the 8th Malaysia-China Entrepreneur Conference 2018.

Malaysia and China have a strong trade relation in agri-commodities, with the trade recorded at RM23bil in 2017.

Last year, Malaysia’s exports of agri-commodities and agri-commodity-based products to China rose 27% to RM19.1bil compared with RM15bil in 2016. — Bernama