KUALA LUMPUR — Asean has requested a special United States (US)-Asean Summit to discuss the tariff issue, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said.
The request was made through Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry, as the country is Asean chair this year.
All Asean leaders have agreed to go to the US to meet with US President Donald Trump for the summit, Tengku Zafrul added.
“And I was made to understand from the Asean secretariat, now we are waiting for the US to revert with the time,” he said in an interview with CNBC this morning, reported by Bernama.
The minister reiterated that Asean does not believe in imposing retaliatory tariffs and the Southeast Asia trading bloc wants to continue to engage Washington.
For Malaysia, Tengku Zafrul said the country was taking both bilateral and multilateral approaches.
“We also agree that the rule-based multilateral trading system is the way to go for Malaysia. We have our officers in Washington, our ministry, as well as our embassy, engaging (with the US),” he said.
“Of course, our foreign minister has also been engaging with the US secretary of state,” he said, adding that Malaysia’s applied effective tariff rate to the US is around 5.6%.
Asean economic ministers in a joint statement yesterday said the regional grouping will not impose retaliatory tariffs on the US.
Tengku Zafrul added that Putrajaya welcomed the reprieve from the pause in reciprocal tariffs by the US as this gives an opportunity to engage and negotiate.
Malaysia was imposed with a 24% reciprocal tariff, but other Asean members had even higher tariffs, of up to 49%.
The US however, has suspended implementation of the reciprocal tariffs, imposed on over 70 countries – except for China – for 90 days, as various governments seek to negotiate with the White House. – April 11, 2025