00:01Malaysia will not accept a trade deal with the U.S. for the sake of it,
00:05and any agreement must ultimately benefit the country.
00:08This is what Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said today
00:13after U.S. President Daul Trump announced that a 25% tariff would be imposed on Malaysian imports starting August 1.
00:20We don't want to reach a deal for the sake of reaching a deal.
00:24If we can reach a deal that benefits Malaysia,
00:27benefit Malaysia, then yes.
00:30But if the deal does not benefit Malaysia, we should not have a deal.
00:34We have to be firm on that.
00:36Between now and 1st of August, we will continue to engage the U.S. Trade Representative
00:41and the Secretary of Commerce through the Department of Commerce
00:44and their officials on the outstanding matters.
00:47He said any tariff reduction must be matched with a careful analysis
00:51of what Malaysia would be giving in return,
00:53and that trade-offs must be factored in.
00:56As I said, it's a negotiation.
00:58When we reduce the tariff, we need to see the impact
01:01of the request they want.
01:02They won't reduce tariff without us giving in on certain things.
01:05So we need to have a balance that we give in to some of the requests.
01:09Will that have an impact to Malaysia?
01:11If it's negative, then we have to see no.
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