Malaysia seeks US clarity on 24 pct tariff: Tengku Zafrul

The Star

Malaysia is seeking clarification from the US over the 24 per cent retaliatory tariff announced by President Donald Trump.  According to Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, the actual average tariff stands at about 5.6 per cent, based on the simple average most favoured nation (MFN) applied rate.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00The average tariff applied to us is called the simple average MFN applied rate is 5.6%.

00:20So that is where we are disputing that number.

00:25We have asked for our team to engage the US team.

00:31We have a team in MITI office in Washington.

00:34We also have our MITI office in Geneva.

00:39So they are already meeting their counterparts.

00:42But at the same time, we have officially written to USTR and to the Department of Commerce

00:48for myself to travel to the US to meet the representative from the US.

00:56And we hope that an engagement with the US will happen before the end of the month.

01:03But at the same time, it is important that we remain calm, that we continue to engage

01:09even from where we are here in Malaysia and our respective teams that are based in the US.

01:18Your question is regarding the coordinated response from ASEAN?

01:23Yes, coordinated response from ASEAN.

01:25That is on the 10th of April where we will be discussing the impact on ASEAN and also

01:32to see what are the areas in common that Malaysia and the rest are facing when it comes to the

01:41tariff decision by the US.

01:43As you know, countries in ASEAN all impose different level of tariffs.

01:50Some may argue that some got worse than others in terms of the tariff rates.

01:56So it is not easy to then agree on something unanimously.

02:02But there will be areas that we can agree on.

02:05And more importantly, we must also look at opportunities for ASEAN itself to work closer together.

02:12As I have mentioned in various platforms, the trade within ASEAN itself is very low,

02:18below 25%.

02:19So we need to look at how we can increase this and also look at trade between ASEAN

02:24and other economic blocs and other countries that have economic cooperation and collaboration

02:33with ASEAN.

02:34We will definitely, as I mentioned, apart from continuing our discussion with the various

02:39countries on bilateral agreements, we are also working with various economic blocs

02:44like EU on multilateral agreements like FTA with the EU.

02:48At the same time, in ASEAN as well, we are going to upgrade our ASEAN Trade and Goods

02:56Agreement.

02:57We are looking at the Digital Economic Framework Agreement.

02:59So all this has to be accelerated.

03:03Because you have to remember the trade with the US is around 18% for Malaysia.

03:09So we still have more than 80% trade with the rest of the world.

03:13Similarly for export, when you talk about E&E exports, we export about close to 30%

03:19of our E&E to the US, less than about 28%.

03:23And the rest of our E&E sector actually exports to the rest of the world.

03:27So it is important, as you correctly stated, to continue our engagement with our other

03:32trading partners through various platforms that we already have and creating new platforms

03:40to ensure a smoother collaboration when it comes to trade and investment.

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