By Jihoon Lee
SEOGWIPO, South Korea (Reuters) -Malaysia’s trade minister is more optimistic of achieving a deal with Washington to reduce tariffs, he said on Thursday, after a meeting with his U.S. counterpart.
Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of a two-day gathering of trade ministers from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group.
It was his second meeting with Greer since the Southeast Asian country officially started negotiations with Washington two weeks ago.
“We’re moving in the right direction, and recently, we’ve also seen the de-escalation between the U.S. and China over the weekend in Geneva, and before that there was an announcement as well with the UK and U.S.,” Tengku Zafrul told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the APEC meeting on South Korea’s resort island of Jeju.
“So, we think, at the end of the day, if we can show a win-win solution for both countries, we should come to an amicable agreement,” he said. He hoped, he added, to see “some sort of a conclusion” before the end of the 90-day pause Trump announced last month.
Tengku Zafrul declined to give details of his meeting with Greer, citing Washington and Kuala Lumpur’s non-disclosure agreement, but he said the government would raise the issue of industries central to the economy, including aerospace and semiconductors.
Malaysia’s prime minister said earlier this month the country may be able to negotiate tariff reductions as Washington had agreed to further talks during preliminary discussions.
Among Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia was hit with 24% U.S. tariffs, higher than 17% tariffs on the Philippines but lower than 32% on Indonesia, 36% on Thailand and 46% on Vietnam.
Last week, Malaysia’s central bank flagged downside risks to its economic growth forecast, citing global trade tensions.
Tengku Zafrul said he was studying the macroeconomic impact of U.S. tariffs, but that the range of 4.5%-5.5% for this year’s economic growth forecast “is going down by 50-100 basis points”.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; editing by Barbara Lewis)
