‘All ASEAN leaders to meet Trump over tariffs, in a special summit’

Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz confirmed that all ASEAN leaders would be raising the reciprocal tariffs that US President Donald Trump have announced.

This would be done via a special US-ASEAN summit.

“And I was made to understand from the Asean secretariat, now we are waiting for the US to revert with the time,” he said during his interview with CNBC this morning.

He also reiterated ASEAN’s stand against retaliatory tariff actions since the bloc wants to engage Washington.

Tengku Zafrul pointed out that Malaysia would be using both the unilateral 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 percent.

He also pointed out that Putrajaya welcomed the 90 day pause on the reciprocal tariffs.