The Agreement on Reciprocal Trade: Understanding Malaysia’s sovereign choices

CONTENTIONS based on fundamentally erroneous premises may appear sound, even cogent, at first blush but when examined more closely, do not have a leg to stand on.

This goes for the spate of criticisms coming from detractors of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART), signed recently between Malaysia and the United States. In panning the deal, these critics conjure up the spectre of Malaysia being a proxy for America, held hostage by the demands of US mercantilism, and teetering on the edge of surrendering our economic and political sovereignty.