RED LINES<\/p>\n
While Tengku Zafrul said negotiations with the US will continue as Malaysia\u2019s 25 per cent tariff is not effective yet, he stressed that Putrajaya will not budge on matters of national interest or agree on a deal just for the sake of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cumulatively engaged with our US counterparts at least on 25 separate occasions. We negotiated in good faith with considerable give and take, while standing firm on crucial matters of national interest and sovereignty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were specific red lines that we would not compromise on. Complex at times, and I must say, certainly demanding, the goal has remained clear: To secure our export market access, modernise our economy and safeguard Malaysian livelihoods for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tengku Zafrul said these red lines involve policies and laws – including government procurement policy – designed to protect Malaysia\u2019s national interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can’t say in detail. I mentioned about one on the digital trade. We have talked about our ability to impose digital tax – that’s a red line,\u201d he said, referring to a 6 per cent service tax on foreign digital service providers in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Tengku Zafrul said his ministry is also discussing with relevant agencies and ministries that \u201calso have their red line\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are also red lines on certain issues regarding certain medical and technical standards, which we feel may not be fair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSENSITIVITIES\u201d IN HALAL CERTIFICATION<\/p>\n
The discussions with relevant ministries involve gathering feedback and agreements on various matters, including industrial and agricultural products, non-tariff barriers, as well as digital trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on our internal calculations, our market access offers for both industrial and agricultural products cover nearly all of US requests,\u201d Tengku Zafrul said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also had to achieve a high level of consensus on issues such as economic security, purchase of US-made products, and increasing investments in the US to help balance Malaysia-US trade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tengku Zafrul identified some \u201calleged non-tariff barriers\u201d in the area of halal certification.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe when we talk about halal certification, we can look at ensuring that the halal standards that they (the US) have are at par with our standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the red lines for them, because they want to export their agricultural products. Right now, we do not allow the (import) of beef and poultry from the US. And they are asking, \u2018Why?\u2019 So, there are sensitivities there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RED LINES While Tengku Zafrul said negotiations with the US will continue as Malaysia\u2019s 25 per cent tariff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[20788,1055,49,978,2612,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-250965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-association-of-southeast-asian-nations","9":"tag-malaysia","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-us-tariffs","13":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114823744145034054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}