Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that Malaysia’s negotiations with the US to lower its tariffs on the Southeast Asian nation have been going well.
Anwar said he received a message earlier Thursday from Malaysia’s Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan saying that the meetings with the US Secretary of Commerce "have been excellent.”
"Our ministers are there in Washington DC to bring up this tariff issue with the US,” Anwar said in a speech in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia was hit with a 24% tariff on April before US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause and imposed a 10% levy on most countries. Malaysia is seeking to reduce the US tariffs to below 10% for sectors critical to both economies.
Anwar said the imposition of the US tariffs was a "significant challenge” given how deeply Malaysia was plugged into global supply chains. He added that about 60% of semiconductor products from Malaysia was exported to the US alone. - Bloomberg
